A federal judge on Tuesday struck down Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s key policy for throttling wind and solar development on public lands, less than 24 hours before Burgum returns to Capitol Hill to defend his agency’s budget.
Chief Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction halting a suite of Trump administration actions that a coalition of regional wind and solar developers said had the “goal and effect of destroying solar and wind energy” on federal lands and waters. The ruling blocks Burgum’s July 2025 order requiring him to personally sign off on every renewable lease, right-of-way, biological opinion, and construction plan, a bottleneck that Canary Media reported had produced zero new solar approvals on federal lands in its first five months.
The plaintiffs, nine regional clean energy trade groups, told the Associated Press the ruling would be the first of many steps to restore projects stalled under Burgum. “The administration should take the hint and stop these illegal attacks on projects that will help meet surging electricity demand and bring down costs for consumers,” Kit Kennedy of the Natural Resources Defense Council said. The Interior Department declined to comment on pending litigation.
The timing is especially bad for Burgum, who testifies at 8:00 a.m. MT before the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee on the administration’s FY2027 budget. Several senators, including Chris Van Hollen, Jeff Merkley, and Kirsten Gillibrand, have pressed Burgum for missing a March 24 statutory deadline to provide Congress with bimonthly reports on renewable energy projects, including details on Interior’s unprecedented $1 billion payment to French energy company TotalEnergies to buy back offshore wind leases.
Rival groups burn taxpayer money on dueling 250th birthday plans
With America’s 250th anniversary less than three months out, the semiquincentennial has split into two rival operations vying for the remaining slice of $150 million in federal money Congress appropriated through last summer’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. On one side is the bipartisan America250 commission Congress created in 2016, which has budgeted $10 million for a student essay contest and spent $4 million on a Times Square ball drop last New Year’s Eve. On the other is Freedom 250, a Trump-aligned LLC spun off last fall by Trump campaign strategist Chris LaCivita, which won’t have to disclose its spending until 2027 because it operates inside the National Park Foundation.
Interior is in charge of distributing the $150 million and has signaled most of the remaining funds will flow to Freedom 250, whose plans include a “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall, a youth athletic competition called the “Patriot Games,” and a $60 million UFC fight at the White House. Nine of Freedom 250’s 15 announced corporate sponsors, including John Deere, Lockheed Martin, and Oracle, are also sponsoring America250, a double-dip that the Journal reports has confused executives at companies now being asked to fund two competing Fourth of July events.
Quick hits
Trump ballroom fundraising contract with Park Service unsealed after Burgum fought to keep it secret
Judge blocks Burgum’s anti-renewable orders on public lands
Associated Press | Reuters | Canary Media | Heatmap
Wyoming renewable developer strikes grid-connection deal despite federal and utility headwinds
Teton County rejects Burgum’s gateway communities order with a letter defending ‘solitude’ over ‘amusement’
Jackson Hole News & Guide | TheTravel
Wright walks back $3 gas timeline after Trump public rebuke
E&E News | The Hill | Washington Examiner
Colorado regulators approve 32 fracking wells near Aurora Reservoir despite 1,000+ opposed commenters
Sentinel Colorado | CBS Colorado
Denver Water drains Antero Reservoir for drought, closes to recreation for first time since 2002
America’s national parks are a $56 billion economic engine
Quote of the day
The effort that Secretary Burgum articulated was not grounded in an understanding of how collaborative conservation works.”
—Teton County Commissioner Luther Propst, Jackson Hole News & Guide
Picture This
I get by with a little help from my friends! 🎶
Coyotes and badgers are known to hunt together and can even be more successful hunting prairie dogs and squirrels when they work in tandem.
Photo by Jason Rudolph