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Trump official signals turnaround on blocked wind and solar projects

US Interior secretary Doug Burgum

Posted on May 4, 2026

By Tim Ferry

With permitting reform on the line, US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has promised to unblock solar and wind projects that have been held up by his office, in line with a federal court order.

Speaking before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on 2027 budget requests Wednesday, Burgum replied “yes” to Nevada Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto’s question: “Are you willing to process solar and wind project permits?”

Secretary Burgum wields significant power over energy development on federal lands and waters and has been central to Donald Trump’s aim to quash what the President calls the “green new scam” of renewables while promoting fossil fuels.

Trump’s war on wind and solar has become a major obstacle to Congressional efforts to streamline the nation’s energy regulatory regime.

Permitting timelines for energy projects – both renewables and fossil – often stretch a decade or more, which, amid surging power demand, raises the spectre of looming power shortfalls.

Separate bills in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are pending, but with an estimated 57GW of wind and solar projects stalled by the DoI, Democrats are reluctant to advance negotiations.

“The most significant obstacle to getting [permitting reform] done is you,” Maine Independent senator Angus King told Burgum.

“It’s your role in… putting your thumb on the scale of multiple solar and wind projects that are sitting on your desk,” the senator who caucuses with the Democrats said.

“There will be no permitting reform until this administration decides it’s going to stop… allowing one side to go forward and not the other,” King added.

Legal setback

The administration’s efforts were dealt a setback 21 April when a judge in the federal District Court in Boston enjoined it from enforcing multiple hurdles aimed at curbing renewables.

Actions taken by the administration ranged from requiring the Interior secretary to personally sign off on routine administrative steps to prioritising ‘energy density’ over other factors, to novel – and in some cases, retroactively applied – interpretations of longstanding coastal law.

Another directive simply barred renewables developers from accessing a federal environmental assessment streamlining tool, a move widely seen as a bald effort to delay projects.

When asked if he would comply with the court’s order, Burgum replied: “We disagree vehemently,” adding: “It’s absurd to me that a court would say that we can’t review projects. That’s basically what it says.”

Pressed by New Mexico Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich, Burgum said: “The Solicitor’s department will respond to any act of litigation, but as I said, we disagree. We disagree with this.”

The Office of the Solicitor provides in-house legal counsel to the DoI. The administration has not said whether it would appeal the ruling but is still within the 60-day window.

Surging renewables

Despite the administration’s efforts, clean energy added a record 50GW last year including 27GW of utility scale solar, 16GW of battery storage, and 7GW of wind, comprising over 90% of new generation capacity, according to American Clean Power Association (ACP).

Due to lengthy development timelines, “most of the projects that we saw come online in 2025 long predated the current administration,” said John Hensley, ACP’s senior vice president for markets and policy.

“That same story is going to be true for a good majority of the projects that we see in 2026 as well. The challenges that we’re talking about are going to really start to show up in years ’27 through 2030,” he added.

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