Indianz.Com > News > Montana Free Press: Plans call for more solar development on public lands
BLM unveils plan for utility-scale solar development in western states
The United States’ largest land manager is soliciting public input on a plan to open federal land to new solar projects.
Monday, January 22, 2024
Montana Free Press
The Bureau of Land Management last week released a plan to bring utility-scale solar energy projects to five western states that currently lack a framework for permitting such projects. The plan is the result of a year-long effort by the agency to solicit input on what considerations should be foregrounded in the permitting process as it opens federal lands in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon to solar development.
The BLM, which manages one-tenth of the land in the nation, and 9% of the land in Montana, described the new plan as part of President Joe Biden’s agenda to accelerate the country’s transition to clean energy and expand the transmission infrastructure needed to tie new projects into the grid. In a January 17 announcement, the agency said that buildout will “lower consumers’ energy costs, prevent power outages in the face of extreme weather [and] create good-paying union jobs,” among other benefits.
“Our public lands are playing a critical role in the clean energy transition — and the progress the Bureau of Land Management is announcing today on several clean energy projects across the West represents our continued momentum in achieving those goals,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a release about the plan “Investing in clean and reliable renewable energy represents the BLM’s commitment to building a clean energy economy, tackling the climate crisis, promoting American energy security, and creating jobs in communities across the country.”
The nuts and bolts of the initiative are included in the Utility-Scale Solar Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, also known as the updated Western Solar Plan. The agency is currently soliciting public input on which of the identified alternatives in the draft plan should be adopted. In addition to a status quo (“no-action”) option, the plan outlines five frameworks for permitting the kind of large-scale solar energy development that’s been in play across southwestern states including New Mexico and Nevada for more than a decade. The agency’s preferred alternative, Alternative 3, prioritizes proximity to transmission infrastructure, an acknowledgment that even expanded permitting of new energy projects can’t meet market demand without power lines to move electricity to where it’s needed. Under that alternative, BLM land located within 10 miles of existing or planned high-voltage transmission lines — those with a capacity of at least 100 kV — that also meet additional criteria could be made available for solar projects. According to the plan, Alternative 3 will prevent “transmission infrastructure sprawl” while “protecting high-value resources, thus reducing habitat fragmentation, natural resource disturbance and environmental and cultural resource impacts.”We're aiming to make significant progress on clean energy projects in 2024. An essential step in this initiative is to expand solar development and provide more reliable renewable energy to the American people. Learn more: https://t.co/E9p0iYyWcS. pic.twitter.com/9kiGJyD12x
— Bureau of Land Management – National (@BLMNational) January 17, 2024
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