The Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) claimed that it doesn’t have a policy prioritizing solar.
While ASLD may not have an official policy on the matter, Gov. Katie Hobbs did order the agency to prioritize solar and other renewable energy leases on the more than 9 million acres of managed state lands last September.
“To be clear, ASLD has no policy prioritizing solar over any other use,” said ASLD in a Thursday statement.
Public attention was drawn to the ASLD management of state trust land after the plight of a fifth-generation Navajo County rancher reached the ears of the Department of Agriculture (USDA). A foreign solar company, Orsted, wants to take over the land leased by rancher Casey Murph.
Casey Murph and his family have run cattle on their Arizona ranch since before Arizona was even a state. Now he’s submitted to the USDA’s Lawfare Portal asking for help. His multi-generational ranch and family legacy are facing eviction if Arizona chooses to cancel his state…
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) May 26, 2026
Hobbs’ executive order directed ASLD to issue a report to her office outlining opportunities and administrative proposals to expedite renewable energy infrastructure on state lands.
The executive order didn’t require ASLD to develop and enforce a policy prioritizing solar or other renewable energy projects on state lands. However, the order did create a new full-time staff position within ASLD to work on energy infrastructure projects.
“The Arizona State Land Department shall [w]ithin 30 days, deliver a report outlining […] a description of the standard leasing process with associated generalized timelines for energy-related leases, [and] opportunities and related administrative proposals to streamline and expedite, to the greatest extent reasonable, Arizona State Land Department processes for the purposes of expanding energy infrastructure on state lands,” stated the order.
The order did require the crafting of certain policies elsewhere.
The Office of Resiliency, Residential Utility Consumer Office, and Department of Economic Security were directed to issue a report that included, in part, potential policy to expand renewable energy.
That 81-page report, published in April, said that state lands would be the biggest focus for building out renewable energy projects. The report recommended launching a technical assistance program for renewable energy developers looking to site projects on state land.
Hobbs also required the newly-created Arizona Energy Promise Taskforce to craft a policy framework for facilitating data center and other large-load customer growth at minimized impact to ratepayers.
In their statement released on Thursday, ASLD maintained that their agency supports ranching. The agency said that grazing leases overlap with 90% of state trust land, and that it avoided canceling leases for critical grazing areas.
“Arizona’s history is deeply tied to ranching. Families came west, raised cattle, managed the land, and helped build the communities that define rural Arizona today,” stated ASLD. “Cattle remains one of Arizona’s historic ‘Five Cs,” and ASLD recognizes the importance of grazing to the state’s heritage, rural economy, and stewardship of State Trust Land.”
ASLD said it was engaging in the “very early stages of evaluation” concerning the proposed Orsted solar project.
— Arizona State Land Department (@AZStateLand) May 29, 2026
Murph responded to ASLD by claiming there were other state land acreage options that would prevent “evict[ing] ranchers from grazing allotments.”
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