Pulse of the Land - 10/6/2025
A weekly brief for conservation and cleaner energy
Key Takeaways This Week
A look at how EPA changes impact Public Lands
Solar + Storage Win in California
Clean Energy Cancelations in “Blue States”
Government Spotlight
Time to look how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is changing public lands
Here are the Zeldin-era EPA moves that directly touch public lands (and how):
Wetlands/streams on federal lands. EPA is moving to narrow which waters are federally protected after Sackett. That shrinks permitting coverage for wetlands/ephemeral streams on BLM/USFS units and for energy/mining projects that cross them. Expect fewer 404 permits and more case-by-case fights near parks/monuments. Reuters
Air in national parks & wilderness (Regional Haze). EPA is revising/loosening pieces of the Regional Haze program that safeguards visibility in 156 Class I areas (e.g., Grand Canyon, Yosemite). Weaker requirements for power plants and other sources would mean more haze days over iconic viewsheds. EPA
PFAS drinking-water rollbacks/delays. EPA kept strict limits for PFOA/PFOS but moved to rescind limits for several other PFAS and push compliance to 2031. That affects systems serving gateway communities and some tribal/federal facilities near public lands where PFAS has been detected. Reuters
Enforcement capacity on/near federal lands. Staff cuts and shutdown slow or pause inspections, Superfund cleanups, and pollution enforcement—including at sites on or adjacent to public lands (EPA notes >150 Superfund sites are on federal land). Less oversight = more risk for rivers, soils, and downwind parks. AP News
Climate authority (Endangerment Finding reconsideration). Reopening the 2009 finding undercuts EPA’s leverage on CO₂/CH₄ from fossil projects whose emissions and infrastructure sit on or affect federal lands. It’s an indirect but big lever on BLM/USFS project footprints and mitigation. EPA
HFC phase-down slowdown. Mostly indirect for public lands (climate signal rather than land rule), but it still nudges long-run warming/visibility and wildfire risk that parks manage. Washington Post
Related—but not EPA: Interior is separately tightening federal control over renewables and reopening huge tracts for coal leasing. Those directly change what can be built on BLM land; they’re driven by DOI, not Zeldin. Reuters
NEPA - What this means on public lands (BLM/USFS/NPS interfaces)
Environmental review clamp-down (NEPA angle): A bill introduced Sept 29 would sharply limit public challenges to federal projects—changing how communities and tribes can contest energy siting on federal land. Congress.Gov
Summary
Siting moves faster for rights-of-way and leases (transmission, wind/solar zones, mines, pipelines) when impacts are framed as localized or already covered by a programmatic review.
Wildlife, groundwater, and access questions risk getting pushed upstream (into big planning docs) rather than hashed out at each project, shrinking case-by-case leverage.
Litigation windows shorten, so groups must surface specific, substantive issues during the comment period or lose standing later.
Clean Energy Project cancellations fight
The Administration moved to cancel nearly $8B in clean-energy projects concentrated in states that voted for Harris—sparking legal/political backlash and new debates over electricity costs and grid planning. Factor This
Clean Energy in the News
The Battery Effect: Less Fossil at Sunset
Fresh data show California’s surge in grid batteries—alongside record solar—cut fossil generation by ~21% Jan–Jul vs. 2024, helping the evening peak and dampening volatility. California’s retail electricity rates ticked up about 1% versus roughly 3–5% nationally (estimate varies by dataset). That nuance gets lost when headlines fixate only on high retail rates; the real story is how storage changes when and how we use clean power. Reuters
PJM’s sticker shock after capacity increase tied to data centers.
The market monitor says data-center load added $7.3B—82% of the increase—in PJM’s latest capacity auction (future bill pressure for ~20% of Americans). In New Jersey prices are expected to spike 17%. Watch how states respond on siting, storage, and demand management. Utility Dive
PJM is a regional transmission organization in the north east and easter midwest.
The State of Public Lands
Shutdown = “open,” but barely.
Many national parks and other federal sites are technically open yet thinly staffed: visitor centers shuttered, slower rescues, limited permits/maintenance, and higher risks to resources and people. Local economies are feeling it, too. Western Priorities
Energy work during shutdown (what moves, what stalls).
Interior’s contingency plans keep some oil & gas activity limping along while many renewables actions pause or slow—adding uncertainty for projects on federal lands and waters. Reuters
Thank you for reading! I highlight threats to public lands and the energy industry’s impact. I believe clean energy is the future, and ALL energy projects should prioritize private land first to keep wild places wild. When energy extraction is needed on public lands all projects must restore the land after extraction. Public lands are unique and once lost, they’re gone forever.