China has long been reviled as a laggard in the global push to wean developed nations from fossil fuels. Gasoline, natural gas and especially coal have fueled that nation’s dramatic growth as it sought to replace the U.S. and Europe as the top economic powerhouses.

That nation has made extraordinary strides economically by using the fuels it has, and thinking about how best to include other types of power — particularly solar and wind — in its mix.

While U.S. leaders have seemed intent on hobbling the economy by forcing a switch to solar and wind power even when a transitional shortfall of electricity would seem to doom the effort, China is looking for a more seamless approach.

For example, China will have 1,200 gigawatts of renewable power online by next year and will add 1,000 gigawatts of solar power by 2026, according to Yale University’s School of the Environment.

To get an idea of the scale of that development, the massive Horse Heaven solar and wind development in Washington state will have a peak capacity of 1.1 gigawatts.

China has made its renewable power turnaround by setting goals — and then following through on them. Now, according to Yale’s “Environment 360” publication, China dominates solar panel manufacturing, owning 80% of the worldwide capacity.

China will triple its solar and wind generation capacity between 2022 and 2030 to 3.9 terawatts. A terawatt is 1,000 gigawatts, or 1 trillion watts.

How is this rapid transition even possible? The U.S. and EU have been doing most of the talking about renewable power while China has been planning and building it. As of 2022, China had built nearly double the EU’s wind and solar capacity and about triple that of the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency.

Part of China’s advantage is its game plan. Instead of looking to convert farmland into solar and wind farms, China is using government-owned deserts and mountains.

In the Kubuqi desert, China has built a wind and solar farm that can produce up to 16 gigawatts. In addition, 224 other projects will produce 455 gigawatts when they are completed.

The U.S. could do that, too. Much of the West is owned by the federal government. About 80% of Nevada and 63% of Utah is federal land. Slightly more than half of Oregon is federally owned, as is 62% of Idaho. Even California is 45% owned by the federal government.

In other words, the federal government owns enough land in the West to build wind and solar farms galore.

We’re not suggesting putting wind turbines atop El Capitan in Yosemite or planting solar panels along the rim of the Grand Canyon. But there are sprawling tracts of desert and otherwise unoccupied and unused federal land across the West.

Using federal land would avoid the legal furballs created when solar and wind developments overtake fertile farmland and grazing land. Like the Chinese, using government land would allow the rapid deployment of wind and solar farms without destroying economically valuable privately owned land.

Assuming those in charge of the federal braintrust in Washington, D.C., are indeed serious about weaning the nation off fossil fuels — that in itself is debatable — using wide open tracts of federal land would only make sense.