The Department of the Interior announced new steps to accelerate solar energy development on public lands in the west.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is developing a plan to guide solar energy development on public lands with an updated Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, according to a Dec. 5 DOI news release.
“This administration is committed to expanding clean energy development to address climate change, enhance America’s energy security and provide for good-paying union jobs," Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in the release. “Our review of these proposed projects in Arizona and a new analysis of the role public lands can play in furthering solar energy production will help ensure we keep the momentum going to build a clean energy future, lower costs for families and create robust conservation outcomes on the nation’s lands and waters.”
BLM is also planning to review three proposed solar projects in Arizona, the release reported. It is expected these projects could add one gigawatt of clean energy to the grid.
The 2012 Programmatic Environmental Impact Statements for Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, created solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission, incentives for development within those zones and a process through which to consider additional zones and solar projects, according to a 2021 news release.
“We take seriously our responsibility to manage the nation’s public lands responsibly and with an eye toward the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. The power and potential of the clean energy future is an undeniable and critical part of that work,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said int he release. “The Bureau of Land Management is working diligently to ensure that its processes and pace maintain the momentum we are seeing from industry.”
