The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has announced it is ending the preferential treatment of ‘unreliable’ and subsidy-reliant wind and solar energy.

All DOI-related decisions and actions regarding wind and solar energy facilities will be subjected to a new review process by the Office of the Executive Secretariat and Regulatory Affairs. Subsidies for such facilities will also be stopped.

The activities to be reviewed will include leases, rights-of-way, construction and operation plans, grants, consultations, and biological opinions.

The announcement follows President Donald Trump signing Executive Order 14315, titled ‘Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources,’ and the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Budget Reconciliation Bill, 2025).

The DOI will address the provisions in the Budget Reconciliation Bill to eliminate longstanding right-of-way and capacity fee discounts for existing and future wind and solar projects.

It stated that this move aims to help ‘level the playing field’ for dispatchable, cost-effective, and secure energy sources, such as clean coal and domestic natural gas.

The American Clean Power Association responded to the announcement, stating that the directive adds three new layers of unnecessary process and unprecedented political review to the construction of domestic energy projects. “The recently released memo from the Interior Department is a bewildering departure from the Administration’s promise to bring down energy prices and make America competitive in the race against China for AI and data centers,” it said.

Trump recently signed the executive order directing the Secretary of the Treasury to terminate the clean electricity production and investment tax credits for wind and solar facilities and implement the enhanced foreign entity of concern restrictions identified in the Budget Reconciliation Bill.

In another executive order, Trump allowed regulatory relief for two years from July 2027 for coal-fired power plants from compliance with ‘unattainable’ emissions controls.