Latest news with #InteriorDepartment
Sky News AU
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘First Lady Melania Trump Opera House': Republicans vote to rename opera house
House Republicans have voted to rename the John F. Kennedy Center opera house after First Lady Melania Trump. The name change was included in an amendment for a spending bill for the Interior Department. The proposed name of the venue is the "First Lady Melania Trump Opera House". Lawmakers had previously approved spending of $US256.7 million for improvement to the centre. The committee adopted the amendment 33-25. The name change remains uncertain as the bill will need to pass the House and the Senate. US President Donald Trump fired board members of the Kennedy Center when he took office and appointed himself chairman. During a tour of the facility in March of 2025, he vowed to "make it great again". "I'm very disappointed when I look around. The bottom line: It has tremendous potential," Trump said.
E&E News
5 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Probationary Interior employees can bring class-action lawsuit over firings
Probationary employees at the Interior Department who were targeted for mass firings earlier this year can now bring a class-action lawsuit challenging their treatment, a federal board ruled. The Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent, quasi-judicial executive branch agency, ruled Friday that 1,700 federal workers qualify as a class and can collectively challenge the Trump administration's mass firings in early February. 'This is a critical milestone for the nearly 2,000 employees who were illegally fired from DOI,' said Danny Rosenthal, a partner at the firm James and Hoffman. The Interior employees are also represented by attorneys with Brown Goldstein Levy; Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll; and Gilbert Employment Law. Advertisement That group includes National Park Service employees and other agencies within Interior. It remains unclear how many of the fired workers have returned to their jobs in the wake of the various court rulings that ordered the rehiring of those probationary workers as well as corrections to their employment records.
E&E News
5 days ago
- Politics
- E&E News
Interior's new solar, wind policy sparks concerns of ‘shadow ban'
A new policy requiring the Interior secretary to approve all aspects of solar and wind project permitting has opened the floodgates for critics who say it's the clearest signal yet that green energy is not part of President Donald Trump's energy dominance agenda. It has also prompted pushback from supporters who say the new policy is a long-overdue move to level the regulatory playing field following four years of the Biden administration prioritizing renewable energy development on federal lands. Prominent Democrats, conservation groups and renewable energy trade groups all bashed the new policy, outlined in an Interior Department memorandum that directs the Interior secretary to review everything from the initial decision to begin a formal evaluation of a solar or wind project application, to the issuance of a record of decision approving it. Advertisement The Trump administration, in formally announcing the new policy Thursday, said it complies with a handful of presidential orders signed by Trump that are designed to reduce barriers to energy production. It also will help ensure projects conform with the administration's energy policies and goals.
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Trump orders new red tape for wind and solar projects on federal land
The announcement comes as the US administration lambasted renewable energy and expressed favour for fossil fuels. Wind and solar projects being constructed on federal land will be required to undergo a new review process at the Interior Department, under a new Trump administration directive that could slow the approval of projects. The directive, announced July 17 , will require sign-off from the Office of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum following an elevated review of decisions related to leases, rights-of-way, construction, operation plans, grants and more, the department said in a statement. The announcement, which follows a deal struck with members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus over subsidies for renewables in exchange for their support of President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending package, comes as the administration has lambasted renewable energy and favoured fossil fuels. The Interior Department said the action was needed to end 'preferential treatment for unreliable, subsidy-dependent wind and solar energy' and also included a move to 'eliminate longstanding right-of-way and capacity fee discounts for existing and future wind and solar projects, bringing an end to years of subsidies for economically unviable energy development'. The Interior Department, which oversees hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land and waters, has wide latitude over energy projects built using public land, which is currently home to 4 per cent of US renewable energy generation. That figure was projected to increase to as much as 12.5 per cent by 2035, according to an Energy Department report. In April, Mr Burgum halted work on Equinor ASA's US$5 billion (S$6.2 billion) Empire Wind farm off the coast of New York, but then reversed the decision a month later after the administration reached a deal with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to open the way for new gas pipelines to be built in the state. Mr Torgrim Reitan, Equinor's chief financial officer, said in an interview in June that further investments in US offshore wind are likely off the table. Interior's new policy will delay the build out of solar and wind projects on federal land by lengthening project and construction approvals, Capstone LLC, a consulting firm, said in a note to clients on July 17 . 'The Secretary of the Interior will apparently now be personally reviewing thousands of documents and permit applications for everything from the location and types of fences to the grading of access roads on construction sites across the country, ' Mr Jason Grumet, the American Clean Power Association's chief executive officer, said in a statement. The move was panned by environmental groups including Evergreen Action, which characterised it as a 'politically motivated attack'. 'Let's speak plainly: This is economic sabotage,' said Ms Lena Moffitt, the group's executive director. 'We can't afford to let this administration bully an American grown industry out of existence to protect their fossil fuel backers.' BLOOMBERG
National Observer
6 days ago
- Business
- National Observer
All wind and solar energy projects to be personally approved by US Interior Secretary
WASHINGTON (AP) — All solar and wind energy projects on federal lands and waters must be personally approved by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum under a new order that authorizes him to conduct 'elevated review' of activities ranging from leases to rights of way, construction and operational plans, grants and biological opinions. The enhanced oversight on clean-energy projects is aimed at 'ending preferential treatment for unreliable, subsidy-dependent wind and solar energy," the Interior Department said in a statement Thursday. The order "will ensure all evaluations are thorough and deliberative" on potential projects on millions of acres of federal lands and offshore areas, the department said. Clean-energy advocates said the action could hamstring projects that need to be underway quickly to qualify for federal tax credits that are set to expire under the tax-cut and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4. The law phases out credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy while enhancing federal support for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. 'At a time when energy demand is skyrocketing, adding more layers of bureaucracy and red tape for energy projects at the Interior Department is exactly the wrong approach,'' said Stephanie Bosh, senior vice president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. 'There's no question this directive is going to make it harder to maintain our global (artificial intelligence) leadership and achieve energy independence here at home.'' In the legislation, Trump and GOP lawmakers moved to dismantle the 2022 climate law passed by Democrats under President Joe Biden. And on July 7, Trump signed an executive order that further restricts subsidies for what he called 'expensive and unreliable energy policies from the Green New Scam.' That order was part of a deal the Republican president made with conservative House Republicans who were unhappy that the tax-cut bill did not immediately end all subsidies for clean energy. A group of Republican senators, including Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Utah Sen. John Curtis, had pushed to delay phaseout of some of the credits to allow currently planned projects to continue. Trump has long expressed disdain for wind power, describing it at a Cabinet meeting last week as an expensive form of energy that 'smart' countries do not use. Even with the changes approved by the Senate, the new law will likely crush growth in the wind and solar industry and lead to a spike in Americans' utility bills, Democrats and environmental groups say. The law jeopardizes hundreds of renewable energy projects intended to boost the nation's electric grid as demand is set to rise amid sharp growth from data centers, artificial intelligence and other uses, they said. "This isn't oversight. It's obstruction that will needlessly harm the fastest growing sources of electric power,'' said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, an industry group. He called the move 'particularly confounding' as lawmakers in both parties seek to streamline permitting for all sources of American energy. 'Level the playing field' The Interior Department said Thursday that Burgum's order will 'level the playing field for dispatchable, cost-effective and secure energy sources,' such as coal and natural gas 'after years of assault under the previous administration.″ 'American energy dominance is driven by U.S.-based production of reliable baseload energy, not regulatory favoritism towards unreliable energy projects that are solely dependent on taxpayer subsidies and foreign-sourced equipment,' said Adam Suess, the acting assistant secretary for lands and minerals management. While Democrats complain the tax law will make it harder to get renewable energy to the electric grid, Republicans say it supports production of traditional energy sources such as oil, gas and coal, as well as nuclear power, increasing reliability. In the Senate compromise, wind and solar projects that begin construction within a year of the law's enactment are allowed to get a full tax credit without a deadline for when the projects are 'placed in service,″ or plugged into the grid. Wind and solar projects that begin later must be placed in service by the end of 2027 to get a credit. The law retains incentives for technologies such as advanced nuclear, geothermal and hydropower through 2032. About 10% of new solar power capacity under development is on federal lands, said Sylvia Leyva Martínez, a principal analyst at the Wood Mackenzie research firm. Those projects could be delayed or canceled if Burgum does not issue permits for them, she said. Related projects such as transmission lines could be affected, too, she said. While only about 1% of the combined capacity of pending wind projects is on federal lands, delays could affect nearby infrastructure that supports renewable projects, said Wood Mackenzie analyst Diego Espinosa.
