In a memorandum issued on Aug. 21, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a new policy prioritizing land use efficiency when evaluating proposals for power generation projects on National Forest System lands.
The memorandum represents the USDA’s “commitment to strengthening American energy production and reducing reliance on foreign energy sources, like foreign adversary-manufactured solar panels, while protecting our lands for future generations,” according to a press release from the agency.
As part of the memorandum, the U.S. Forest Service will develop new screening guidelines that measure and prioritize the amount of energy produced per acre of land “while ensuring projects are consistent with environmental stewardship, multiple-use principles, and economic benefits for rural communities,” the press release said.
“America has the resources and ingenuity to power our future without depending on foreign adversaries,” Rollins said in the press release.
“We will no longer allow foreign-made solar panels or inefficient energy projects to undermine our national security. We are prioritizing reliable power sources, reducing costs, and preserving more land for recreation, timber, and wildlife for future generations.”
The USDA manages around 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands in 43 states.
“Policies that discouraged the use of these lands for power generation in the past increased reliance on intermittent energy sources and limited U.S. energy independence,” the press release stated.
Focusing on land use efficiency will ensure that proposed energy projects maximize output per acre, reduce environmental impacts, and allow more National Forest System lands to remain available for multiple uses, according to the USDA.
Wind, solar, natural gas, and other energy types require varying amounts of land and have different environmental impacts, the press release noted. This is why efficiency-based screening is important for “balancing economic development with environmental stewardship.”
The memorandum followed an Aug. 18 X post from Rollins announcing that the USDA has halted programs that fund solar or wind power projects on productive farmland.
“Millions of acres of prime farmland is left unusable so Green New Deal subsidized solar panels can be built. This destruction of our farms and prime soil is taking away the futures of the next generation of farmers and the future of our country,” Rollins said.
The Biden administration promoted nationwide wind and solar deployment. The Trump administration has mostly reversed that agenda.
In a Sept. 12, 2024, post, the USDA stated, “From 2012 to 2020, more than 90 percent of large-scale, commercial wind turbines and 70 percent of solar farms in rural areas were installed on agricultural land.”
These projects occupied 424,000 acres of farmland as of 2020, amounting to 0.05 percent of the total 897 million acres of farmland, according to the 2024 USDA statement.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the Biden administration in 2022, provided the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program more than $2 billion to support agricultural producers and rural small business owners through renewable energy grants.
Rollins noted in her Aug. 18 post that stopping renewable projects on U.S. farmland ends “the use of panels made by foreign adversaries like China.”
China controls the supply chain of critical materials necessary for solar and wind power technologies.
Rollins’s Aug. 21 announcement, and her Aug. 18 post, follow a July 7 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that sought to end market-distorting subsidies for “unreliable, foreign-controlled energy sources.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed an order seeking to rein in wind and solar power projects and ensure that federal lands are used optimally for energy projects on Aug. 1.
Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.
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