This month, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed an order requiring the government to consider the electricity generation and land use of energy projects on public lands. This order goes a long way to recognizing the disproportionate land use of wind and solar and fulfilling the government’s obligations to get fair returns for U.S. taxpayers.
The order requires agencies to consider the “capacity density,” or the quantity of electricity an energy project produces per acre of land it uses. When agencies are asked to approve a project on public lands, they will need to assess “a reasonable range of alternatives” under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that can produce as much or more electricity as the proposed project for the same amount of land.
The DOI estimates that the highest energy-density source, advanced nuclear plants, can get 33 megawatts (MW) per acre of land used. The least energy-dense source, offshore wind, only achieves 0.006 MW per acre.
However, the order isn’t a death sentence for wind and solar on public lands. NEPA only requires that agencies inform themselves of the environmental impacts of a proposal, not that they necessarily need to pick the most environmentally-friendly, or least land-intensive, option in disregard of their legal obligations. In addition, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power or extraction projects may also not be a “reasonable alternative” in many cases, and so it wouldn’t be a good alternative use of the land.
The DOI terminated the controversial Lava Ridge Wind Project last week, which is a good example of why local buy-in is important for such sprawling projects. The project was rammed through in December 2024 by the Biden administration and scaled down to allow 231 turbines, standing 660 feet tall, on 38,500 acres of BLM lands. 38,500 acres is about three-quarters the size of the city of Boise, the capital and most populous city in Idaho, and the area of the second and third-most populous cities of Meridian and Caldwell combined. This magnitude of land use displaces other uses, like grazing and agriculture.
Independent Women Center for Energy and Conservation Director Gabriella Hoffman originally broke the story for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), determining that the project posed “threats to the former Minidoka Japanese Internment Camp (now Minidoka National Historic Site), National Eastern Snake River Aquifer, migratory birds, and local wildlife.” In addition, “Even the touted electricity benefits from wind power were overstated: We discovered the power from Lava Ridge would be shipped to California and Nevada—not remain in Idaho.”
Considering the land area and energy production capabilities of using public lands is a long-overdue course correction. DOI’s new order recognizes that bigger energy projects aren’t always better on public lands.