Interior Memo Complicates Race to Qualify for Wind, Solar Subsidies

Current conditions: Invest 93 could develop into a tropical depression and dump 3 to 6 inches of rain on southern Louisiana between now and this weekend • Western and central Massachusetts face a small tornado risk this afternoon and evening • Spain attributes more than 1,100 deaths this spring and summer to extreme heat. 

THE TOP FIVE

1. ‘Drastic’ Interior memo adds further bottleneck for construction of wind, solar

A new secretarial order from the Department of the Interior’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Gregory Wischer, states that “all decisions, actions, consultations, and other undertakings” that are “related to wind and solar energy facilities” will now be required to go through multiple layers of political review from Wischer’s and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s respective offices. My colleague Jael Holzman, who reviewed the document, explains that the new layer of review would apply to “essentially anything Interior and its many subagencies would ordinarily be consulted on before construction,” creating a further bottleneck for projects that need to be underway to qualify for federal tax credits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The order lists 68 different activities that will now come under this extra level of review. In sum, the order is “so drastic it would impact projects on state and private lands, as well as federal acreage,” Jael writes. “In some cases, agency staff may now need political sign-offs simply to tell renewables developers whether they need a permit at all.” Read her full report here.

2. Solar, wind ‘unstoppable’ despite the OBBBA: report

Solar and wind are “economically unstoppable,” even without tax credits, a new report on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act from the Columbia Business School found. According to the report, solar photovoltaic prices have decreased by approximately 80% over the past decade, wind by approximately 70%, and lithium-ion battery by approximately 90%. As a result, gas combined cycle power plants are now more expensive than both solar and wind. Still, given the 2026 phaseout of production tax credits, “we will likely see a brief spike in projects for the next 18 months as they race to be placed while still eligible, then a deceleration,” Columbia Business School found. Additionally, while the OBBBA offers a “silver lining” for renewable projects like nuclear, geothermal, and carbon capture, cuts to Department of Energy research and development funding will mean “the United States will only fall further behind in the global clean energy race,” the report continues.

3. 20 states sue FEMA over elimination of natural disaster mitigation grants

A coalition of 20 Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Wednesday against the Federal Emergency Management Agency over its elimination of a natural disaster mitigation grant program, The New York Times and Associated Press report. The lawsuit, which follows near-record rains in New York and New Jersey, as well as the catastrophic floods in Texas, claims that terminating the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program is unlawful because it wasn’t done with the approval of Congress. The Trump administration’s shutdown of the grant is “making it much harder for communities across our state to protect themselves against future extreme weather events and putting lives at risk,” New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, said in a statement.

Initially established by law in 2000, BRIC’s roughly $4.5 billion grants have helped fund nearly 2,000 resiliency and mitigation projects around the country. FEMA justified its decision to terminate the program as part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

4. Governors pen letter to PJM demanding operator restore its ‘legitimacy’ by appointing ‘widely respected leaders’

A bipartisan group of governors representing nine of the 13 states in which PJM operates issued an open letter on Wednesday demanding the grid operator appoint “widely respected leaders” to its two open board seats to “restore PJM’s legitimacy.” The letter specifically cited a lack of confidence in PJM due to its “multi-year inability to connect new resources to its grid efficiently and to engage in effective long-term transmission planning,” as well as the termination of two members of its Board of Managers and the upcoming departure of its CEO. The governors further requested a meeting with PJM’s nominating committee to share its proposed slate of candidates who “understand the concerns of ratepayers facing rising costs and who will be ready to collaborate with the incoming CEO to instill a new, more collaborative and more effective ethos at PJM.”

As my colleague Matthew Zeitlin has reported, though many states in PJM’s service area on the Mid-Atlantic have ambitious decarbonization goals, the operator is “actively seeking to bring new gas-fired generation onto the grid to meet its skyrocketing projections of future demand.” But while PJM has blamed permitting woes and the retirements of power plants for its challenges, “state officials and clean energy advocates have instead placed the blame for higher costs and impending reliability gaps on PJM’s struggles to connect projects, how the electricity market is designed, and the operator’s perceived coolness towards renewables,” Matthew goes on.

5. Netherlands to cut offshore wind goal by 40%

The Netherlands will cut its offshore wind goals by as much as 40%, claiming its aim of 50 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2030 is “not realistic,” Bloomberg reports. The new target will be in the range of 30 to 40 gigawatts, adjusted to consider both the high cost of development and lagging power demand growth. The announcement comes as part of a larger slowdown in offshore wind globally. The International Renewable Energy Agency has stated that to meet global targets of tripling renewable energy use by 2030, offshore wind capacity would need to grow to 494 gigawatts by 2030, up from 73 gigawatts currently.

THE KICKER

  Tesla

Tesla teased the launch of a six-seat version of its Model Y, the Model YL, on Wednesday. The car will be available in China in the fall, and appears to be a strategic move by the automaker to “boost its sales amid rising competition from BYD and other domestic manufacturers,” The Verge reports.