On Friday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a secretarial order that could effectively prohibit his agency from issuing permits for wind and solar on federal lands unless they produce as much energy per acre as fossil fuels or nuclear power, reports Heatmap News. Specifically, the order directs the Interior Department to consider "a reasonable range of alternatives that includes projects with capacity densities meeting or exceeding that of the proposed project," when conducting a review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
"Based on common sense, arithmetic, and physics, wind and solar projects are highly inefficient uses of Federal lands," the order reads. "On a technology-neutral basis, wind and solar projects use disproportionate Federal lands relative to their energy generation when compared to other energy sources, like nuclear, gas, and coal."
On one hand, the announcement could signal a return to sound energy policy. Under former President Joe Biden, the federal government paused new oil and gas leasing (eventually lifting the ban) and supercharged renewable energy development on federal lands. Political favoritism of green energy sources, which run at full power less than 40 percent of the time and need more land to produce a megawatt of electricity than other conventional sources, coupled with the retirement of baseload energy sources, has undermined the outlook of the U.S. electricity grid, according to the Energy Department.
