Dive Brief:
- The Trump administration has suspended issuing any onshore or offshore renewable energy authorizations, according to an order issued by the Department of the Interior.
- The Department of the Interior issued the Jan. 20 order, which applies to leases or lease amendments, rights of way or amendments to rights of way, contracts and “any other agreement required to allow for renewable energy development.”
- The leasing pause was issued on Trump’s first day in office, amid a cavalcade of executive orders that included pulling the United States from the Paris Agreement, declaring a national energy emergency, pausing all wind development and broad reversals on DEI policies set by his predecessor.
Dive Insight:
The pause for renewable energy authorization applies to leases on federal lands and waters and will be in effect for 60 days from Jan. 20. The order was signed by Acting Secretary of the Interior Walter Cruickshank; Trump’s nominee for the post, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, is expected to be confirmed later this week.
The order does not limit production under existing leases. It also includes a carve out for authorizations necessary to avoid conditions that may pose a threat to human health, welfare or safety or public lands or mineral resources.
“This Order ensures that the Department continues its existing operations — including operations necessary for health, safety, and national security matters — consistent with all legal obligations and policy goals, to uphold trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations, and to responsibly steward the Nation's public lands, waters, and resources for current and future generations,” last week’s order stated.
Currently, just 4% of utility-scale solar, onshore wind and geothermal energy projects in the contiguous U.S. are located on federal lands, according to a recent analysis from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Comparatively, 12% of oil drilling in the contiguous U.S. is located on federal land, according to NREL.
In the same analysis — released Jan. 14 under the Biden administration — NREL said federal lands have the capacity to deploy between 51-84 gigawatts of renewable energy projects by 2035. That would amount to around 10% of the energy the nation needs to meet its net-zero goal, NREL said.
More broadly, the order also instructs the Department of Interior to cease publishing activity in the Federal Register, “including, but not limited to, notices of proposed or final agency action and actions taken in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.” It also instructs the agency to cease issuing, revising or amending resource management plans; approving mining operations; or make any appointments, hirings or promotions, outside of seasonal hires or emergency personnel.
Trump has taken a variety of actions on climate and energy since returning to the White House. In addition to pulling the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and declaring an energy emergency, he also signed a day one executive order suspending all funding disbursements related to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Roughly 84% of clean energy grants created by the IRA were obligated prior to Trump’s inauguration, according to a Reuters report.
On Monday, the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget issued an order to freeze all federal financial assistance programs, which was later blocked by a federal judge. The funding freeze raises constitutional issues related to the president’s impoundment power and has already been challenged in court by 22 states and the District of Columbia.
