How do fossil fuel and clean energy leasing work?

The federal government, and more specifically, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), manages public land, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) manages public water. These agencies are responsible not only for conservation, recreation, and grazing on these public lands, but also for overseeing the onshore and offshore leasing of oil and gas extraction.

The Co-Location Energy Act is good news for renewable energy developers and companies. Allowing wind and solar projects to be co-located on existing federal oil and gas energy leases reduces the red tape to build renewable projects since federal permission has already been granted. All that is needed is consent from current leaseholders.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, as of 2022, the oil and gas industry held more than 34,000 leases on roughly 23.7 million acres on public lands.

The federal oil and gas leasing system has long been criticized by taxpayer and environmental advocacy groups for being out of date and catering to the industry.A November 2021 Department of the Interior report found that

“the program falls short of serving the public interest in a number of important respects, including causing damage to taxpayers, the environment, recreation, and cultures.”

Additionally, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has highlighted the staggering hundreds of billions spent globally on subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, resulting in hundreds of billions in profit for the sector and to the detriment of people and the planet. Their resulting award winning #dontchooseextinction campaign has garnered over 2 billion views globally:

Despite this public pressure, the question remains if Big Oil and Gas will cooperate with wind and solar expansion projects on their leased public lands, or if they will continue to prioritize dirty energy profits over playing ball?

Why is clean energy permitting being introduced now?

Planet Re-imagined did a robust study and found that there are 18 million acres of oil and gas land in the US that are prime for wind or solar. Their analysis found that adding renewables to this land could generate 2000 gigawatts of new clean electricity, a number not considered in any previous study in the US.

Adam Met, Founder and Executive Director of Planet Reimagined, in an exclusive interview, explained:

“This bill helps fast track the permitting process because environmental reviews and permits have already been issued for this land, so we can cut years off the permitting process!”

What does the Co-Location Energy Act actually do for clean energy?

This bill instructs the Department of Interior (DOI), to:

• Authorize the Evaluation and Development of Renewable Energy on Existing Leases: Renewable energy developers can evaluate and, with leaseholder consent, construct solar and wind projects on oil, gas, coal, and geothermal leased areas.
• Assess for Categorical Exclusions: DOl must analyze whether wind and solar production could qualify for a categorical exclusion under the National

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. The Bill’s progress can be tracked here.

The future of clean energy in the US:

Data clearly shows that scaling US wind and solar energy will help usher in energy security for America. Some significant challenges for scaling wind and solar have been around land acquisition, high infrastructure costs, and complex permitting processes. These surmountable challenges have historically slowed development and increased expenses. With the passing of Co-Location Energy Act, all this may finally change.

“My hope is that we can get as many Republicans and Democrats together on the issue of energy in the US, which will set the example for a lot more bipartisanship in the next 4 years.”

One would hope that energy security remains a bipartisan issue, and that the transition to clean energy remains a top priority for the Trump administration, and any administration to come.