Trump backs down from war on wind as Dems threaten to tank landmark bill: report

President Donald Trump's administration is easing off its crusade against wind power projects, Punchbowl News reported on Thursday — a move calculated to appease Democrats threatening to walk away from a landmark permitting reform bill.

According to Joshua Siegel, the projects, including wind power installations in Maine and South Dakota, are "the first tranche of wind projects that were under review and stalled in the DOW/DOD's clearinghouse process. Democrats say the White House agreed to begin releasing these projects as a condition of the permitting deal."

Trump has had a vendetta against wind power ever since an array of turbines altered the view from one of his golf courses in Scotland. He constantly rails against wind turbines, which he calls "windmills," pushing misleading claims about their threat to birds and whales. His administration has cited national security concerns to stall offshore wind projects, and even outright paid some wind developers to cancel their projects.

A report earlier this week, though, indicated Democrats were threatening to walk away from the bipartisan permitting reform bill advancing through Congress if wind power projects continue to be stalled.

The bill would be a major overhaul of the process for approving new energy projects. It would make it easier to approve transmission lines for renewable energy, as well as streamline the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act. This would make it easier to approve energy of all kinds, satisfying longtime goals for both parties.

It's likely one of the last chances the Trump administration has to get major legislation approved before the start of the next session of Congress, which midterm polls suggest could see Republican power significantly weakened.