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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Tuesday ordered a comprehensive review of the agency's approval process for wind projects, including right-of-way authorizations, environmental analysis and wildlife permits. The order, which Burgum said aims to end preferential treatment for wind and solar, is sure to further spook renewables investors and developers already reeling from the administration's attack on clean energy.
President Donald Trump, who was in Scotland Tuesday to open a second golf course at his sprawling estate in the eastern part of the country, criticized the UK's support for wind power and decried turbines as overly expensive eyesores.
'Windmills are a disgrace,' he said earlier in the day. 'They hurt everything they touch. They're ugly. They're very inefficient. It's the most expensive form of energy there is.'
Trump, who fought against a wind project within view of his first golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, indefinitely halted the sale of new offshore wind leases on his first day in office and paused permitting of all wind projects on federal lands and waters. More recently, the Interior Department ordered that all solar and wind projects on federal lands required Burgum's sign-off, a move that threatens to mire their approval process in red tape.
In April, Burgum halted work on Equinor ASA's $5 billion Empire Wind farm off the coast of New York, but then reversed the decision a month later after the administration reached a deal with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to open the way for new gas pipelines to be built in the state. Torgrim Reitan, Equinor's chief financial officer, said in an interview last month that further investments in US offshore wind are likely off the table.
Wind power backers criticized the latest move by the Interior Department, with the American Clean Power Association saying it amounts to 'a confusing mix of unprecedented requirements on wind projects.'
'On its current course, the Interior department will block electricity from the grid resulting in higher prices, lost jobs, and decreased system reliability,' Jason Grumet, the trade group's chief executive officer, said in a statement. 'The proposed federal interference with private economic activity is unprecedented and creates a troubling challenge for critical infrastructure investment of any kind.'
--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Skylar Woodhouse.
(Adds comment from trade group in last two paragraphs.)
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