WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Wednesday said it would cut in half the amount it charges companies to build wind and solar projects on federal lands, a move designed to encourage renewable energy development.
“Clean energy projects on public lands have an important role to play in reducing our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and reducing costs for families,” Home Affairs Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. declare.
Wind and solar developers have long said that rents and fees for projects on federal land are too high to attract investors. Administration officials say the new policy will cut those costs by about 50%.
Representative Mike Levin, the California Democrat who has sponsored legislation promoting renewable energy development, welcomed the move. “As Americans continue to face the worsening effects of the climate crisis and rising energy bills, it is paramount that we strengthen our independence,” he said in a statement. on its clean energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy costs”.
Ms. Haaland made the announcement during a trip to Las Vegas, where she hosted a renewable energy roundtable with business groups. The federal Bureau of Land Management also announced that it will strengthen the ability of wind, solar and geothermal developers to handle the growing number of applications by creating five new offices. across the West to review proposed projects.
The decision comes as the Biden administration is also seeking to increase the royalty fees it charges oil and gas companies for drilling on federal land and in interstate waters. Last month, the government cancel three oil and gas lease contracts in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, prompting Republican lawmakers to criticize the new renewable energy policies as bad for energy-producing states.
“This is Biden’s energy policy: wind, solar and dream,” Senator John Kennedy, a Republican of Louisiana, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “It is just unrealistic and, among other things, it is hurting our country. It is hurting my people in Louisiana desperately.”
President Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gases produced by the United States by about half by 2030. Legislation to do that is frozen on Capitol Hill.
As a result, the administration’s focus on more restrictive law enforcement activities can promote clean energy and reduce the use of oil, gas, and coal – the burning of which produces carbon dioxide and other gases that are damaging dangerously hot planet.
For example, last year the government gave the green light to two major solar projects on federal lands in California that it says will generate about 1,000 megawatts, enough electricity to power about 132,000 homes.
In a report to the National Assembly in April, the Interior Ministry said it was on track to approve 48 wind, solar and geothermal energy projects with the capacity to produce about 31,827 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply electricity. for about 9.5 million homes, at the end of the fiscal year 2025 budget cycle.
The drop in fees and rents is a difficult time for the solar industry. A Commerce Department investigation into whether Chinese companies are evading US tariffs by shipping components for solar panels across four Southeast Asian countries has held hundreds of new solar projects around the country.
