A sweeping Interior Department order will ensnare wind and solar projects on private land across the country, risking investments and potentially preventing new power supplies from coming online, according to an industry analysis obtained by POLITICO.
The analysis comes as utilities and renewable power developers have struggled to digest the effect of the secretarial order last month that required Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s approval across 69 tasks for building wind and solar projects connected to public lands.
But the American Clean Power Association found 27 of those procedures would apply to projects on private land, giving the new policies broad reach to throttle solar and wind construction in every corner of the country.
The order was one of a series of moves by the Trump administration to stunt the development of wind and solar projects.
