President Donald Trump's administration is poised to attack the clean energy industry with new permitting rules that would affect "scores of projects on private land," and "even Republicans say it goes too far," wrote Joshua Siegel and Zack Colman for Politico on Friday.
The memo, issued on Wednesday, requires "Secretary Doug Burgum’s personal approval for even the most routine activities related to wind and solar projects on federal lands" — which would also require any project that is primarily on private land that must run through or link up with infrastructure on land managed by the federal government to go through the same burdensome process.
In another stealth change to federal rules, Burgum also banned wind and solar developers from using the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Information for Planning and Consultation portal, which is used to automatically screen proposed projects that may overlap with the habitats of endangered species. Without access to this tool, wind and solar projects will have to undergo a much lengthier and more difficult environmental review than any other kind of project.
All of this follows Republicans in Congress approving a provision in Trump's tax cut megabill that repeals most federal green energy credits, which already threatens to slow the development of an industry that has ironically created most of its new infrastructure and jobs in Republican-controlled states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Indiana.
But even many of these same Republicans draw the line at these new regulations on wind and solar power, said the report.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who only voted for Trump's bill in part because she negotiated a one-year delay in phasing out credits for wind and solar projects, said this memo “is like putting the final nail into” the coffin of that compromise. Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), who was also in on that compromise, said he disagrees with putting new restrictions on solar because "we need every electron we can get" to be energy dominant.
Even Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), whose state economy depends heavily on the fossil fuel industry, told Politico she believes there must be a "fair playing field" and “every energy project needs to be permitted as fast as possible regardless of resource."
Democrats, too, are warning that if this memo is not rescinded or struck down in court, it could come back to haunt Republicans.
"I would warn them if they create this as a precedent and it survives, a future administration could play the same game with oil and gas pipelines and leases,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM).