Doug Burgum escalates war on bird-killing windmills that Trump regularly rages against
The Department of the Interior (DOI) will release five policy updates on Tuesday afternoon to better align the agency with President Donald Trump 's affordable energy agenda, the Daily Mail has exclusively learned.
Part of that mission is to cut federal funding to renewable wind energy sources like wind turbines on land and off-shore.
The order seeks to end 'preferential treatment for unreliable energy sources like wind,' according to a drafted press release obtained by the Daily Mail.
It also will prompt the DOI to identify policies favoring wind and solar energy and halt spending on 'energy supply chains controlled by foreign rivals.' Notably, China leads the globe in turbine and solar power manufacturing.
Trump has said that 'no new windmills' will be built during his administration and he has recently slammed the towering turbines for 'killing the beauty of our scenery, our valleys, our beautiful plains—I'm not talking about airplanes, I'm talking about beautiful plains.'
'Beautiful areas in the United States, and you look up and you see windmills all over the place. It's a horrible thing,' Trump said this week while visiting Scotland.
The DOI orders on Tuesday will make good on an executive order signed earlier this year where Trump halted wind leasing pending a review.
The president decried wind turbines repeatedly this week after spotting some of the mammoth energy machines 'on the horizon' while playing on his golf course in Turnberry, Scotland.
'The whole thing is a con job,' the 79-year-old Republican said of the wind industry this week.
He also repeated his past claim that off-shore wind turbines are at fault for disrupting sensitive ecosystems.
'It's driving [whales] loco, it's driving them crazy,' Trump said in Scotland.
The DOI order will also prompt the department to review avian mortality rates caused by wind energy projects in migratory birds' flight paths
Bird deaths that are caused by legal activities are considered 'incidental' under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and the DOI will study whether wind turbines qualify for legal protections under the law.
If not, turbine operators could be on the hook for killing birds even if it is unintentional.
Trump has noted in the past that American bald eagles were being killed by turbines in California.
'You know, in California, they were killing the bald eagle. If you shoot a bald eagle, they want to put you in jail for 10 years. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. It's true,' Trump said in 2019.
There are over 70,000 wind turbines in the U.S. and the American Bird Conservancy estimates that hundreds of thousands of birds are killed by them annually.
'These policy changes represent a commonsense approach to energy that puts Americans' interests first,' Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
'Leveling the playing field in permitting supports energy development that's reliable, affordable, and built to last,' it continued. 'We're also making sure tribes and local communities have a real seat at the table. This move is about responsible energy growth that works for every American.'
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