Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Interior's war on renewables accelerates
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Monday, August 4, 2025
Wind energy development in Wyoming, Bureau of Land Management via Flickr ([link removed])
On Friday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order intended to make it more difficult to permit wind or solar projects on national public lands. Secretarial Order 3438 Managing Federal Energy Resources and Protecting the Environment ([link removed]) suggests that existing laws "give rise to the question on whether the use of Federal lands for any wind and solar projects is consistent with the law, given these projects' encumbrance on other land uses, as well as their disproportionate land use when reasonable project alternatives with higher capacity densities are technically and economically feasible."
The order directs the Interior department to evaluate projects based on "capacity density," or the ratio of a project's energy generation potential to its footprint on the landscape, compared to "reasonable alternatives" to the proposed project. By this metric, the order asserts, "wind and solar projects are highly inefficient uses of Federal lands." The order does not mention consideration of other impacts such as carbon emissions.
Friday's secretarial order is the latest in a series of policies aimed at crippling renewable energy. On July 7, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14315 ([link removed]) which was intended to end any government incentives for renewable energy projects. The Interior department has issued a number of follow-up policies in recent weeks, including a requirement that Secretary Burgum personally review all wind and solar project proposals ([link removed]) , and an order directing the department to identify and consider eliminating any policies that encourage wind and solar development ([link removed]) .
Trump admin seeking to divert LWCF funds from acquisitions to maintenance
The Interior department is drafting an order that would take money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and redirect it to maintenance at national parks and other public lands, the Washington Post reports ([link removed]) . LWCF is funded by royalties on offshore oil and gas production, and the funds are required by law to be spent on acquisitions of land and easements. "It’s illegal to spend LWCF funds on maintenance and they know it," said ([link removed]) U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "If they move forward, they will be sued and they will lose. It’s not too much to ask to follow the law."
** Quick hits
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BLM calls new oil and gas rules ‘noncontroversial,’ exempts them from public comment
Inside Climate News ([link removed])
U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management officials in Colorado describe ‘big holes’ in staffing
Steamboat Pilot & Today ([link removed])
Trump admin proposal would drastically limit public input on logging in Oregon and Washington
OPB ([link removed])
Trump wants a new border wall. It would block a key wildlife corridor
New York Times ([link removed])
10 years since Gold King mine spill, locals are still waiting for a solution
Colorado Sun ([link removed])
Arizona, Utah wildfires spur 'fire clouds' with erratic weather systems
The Guardian ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed])
Lawmakers table bill to allow nuclear waste storage in Wyoming
WyoFile ([link removed])
How one California community is turning an old oil field into protected habitat
High Country News ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” You can have housing, and you can conserve land. You might need to think creatively, but it can be done.”
—Melanie Schlotterbeck, Coastal Corridor Alliance, High Country News ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@rockynps ([link removed])
To become intimate with the sky, sun, and moon, we climb mountains
–Terry Tempest Williams
Mountains...these towering peaks both inspire us and physically challenge us. Mountains also provide critical habitat for plant and wildlife species. Located in the Southern Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain National Park is home to 124 named peaks, 118 of which have peaks that are 10,000 feet in elevation or higher.
The mountains of RMNP provide habitat in the montane, subalpine, and alpine ecosystems. Some of the species you might see while visiting Rocky include elk, Mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, Yellow-bellied marmot, pika, White-tailed Ptarmigan, Alpine Avens and Rocky Mountain Columbine.
What do mountains mean to you?
Image Credit: NPS Photos
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