Biden Administration to Cut Costs for Wind and Solar Energy Projects

The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it would cut in half the amount it charges companies to build wind and solar projects on federal lands.

Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, said that clean energy projects on public lands have an important role to play in reducing our nation's greenhouse gas emissions.

Developers of wind and solar projects have said that federal lease rates and fees are too high to attract investors. Administration officials said that the new policy would cut those costs by 50 percent.

As Americans face worsening effects of the climate crisis and rising energy bills, it's paramount that we strengthen our clean energy independence.

Ms. Haaland hosted a renewable energy round-table with business groups in Las Vegas. The Bureau of Land Management will create five new offices across the West to review proposed projects in order to strengthen its ability to handle a growing number of applications.

The decision comes as the Biden administration seeks to raise the royalty fees it charges oil and gas companies to drill on federal land. The administration canceled three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska last month, prompting Republican lawmakers to criticize the new renewable energy policies as harmful to energy producing states.

Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, said on the Senate floor that Biden's energy policy was wind, solar and wishful thinking. It's hurting my people in Louisiana.

President Biden wants the United States to cut greenhouse gases in half by the year 2030. Legislation to accomplish that is not on Capitol Hill.

The administration is focused on limited executive actions that could spur clean energy and reduce the use of oil, gas and coal, which produce the carbon dioxide and other gases that are dangerously heating the planet.

The administration gave the go-ahead to two major solar projects on federal lands in California that it said would generate about 1,000 megawatts, enough electricity to power 132,000 homes.

In a report to Congress in April, the Interior Department said it was on track to approve 48 wind, solar and geothermal energy projects with the capacity to produce an estimated 31,827 megawatts of electricity, enough to power roughly 9 million homes by the end of the fiscal year in five years.

The solar industry is facing a challenging time. Hundreds of new solar projects across the country have been held up by the Commerce Department's investigation into whether Chinese companies are skirting U.S. tariffs by moving components for solar panels through four Southeast Asian countries.