Jack Stevens: Burgum Tells Us How He Really Feels About Wind and Solar

Last Friday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum sent his strongest message yet that wind and solar developers are not welcome on federal land with an order that federal regulators consider “capacity density” as a factor in their review of clean energy proposals.

“Based on common sense, arithmetic, and physics, wind and solar projects are highly inefficient uses of Federal land,”’ he said. “Thus, when there are reasonable alternatives that can generate the same amount of or more energy on far less Federal land, wind and solar projects may unnecessarily and unduly degrade Federal lands.”

His order dampens, if not scuttles, the prospects of 35 solar and three wind projects currently in Interior’s approval pipeline.

Approximately 28% of the land in the US is owned and managed by the federal government – some 640 million acres out of the total 2.27 billion acres in the country. Apparently, not enough room for wind or solar projects.