The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today announced its proposed Roadmap for Solar Energy Development on Public Lands, designed to expand efficient and environmentally responsible permitting for solar energy projects on public lands in the West. Today the release of the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Utility-Scale Solar and Proposed Changes to the Resource Management Plan (also known as the proposed updated Western Solar Plan), comes as the Biden-Harris administration releases new data on improved federal permitting processes to help bring more projects to fruition, more efficiently, in the United States.
Credit: Primergy
“The updated Western Solar Plan will help build a modern, resilient energy infrastructure that creates a strong clean energy economy and protects our communities from the worsening impacts of climate change,” said Steve Feldgus, Assistant Secretary for Agriculture and mineral management. “Through comprehensive planning and collaboration, we will not only protect our public lands, but also ensure that solar project permitting is faster and more efficient, avoiding conflict and striking the right balance while promoting clean energy and protecting the environment.”
The proposed updated Western Solar Plan, developed with public input, will guide BLM in managing solar energy proposals and projects on public lands. It would make more than 31 million acres of public lands in eleven western states available for potential solar energy development, locating development closer to transmission lines or on previously disturbed areas and avoiding protected areas, sensitive cultural resources and wildlife habitat .
The plan updates and expands the original 2012 Western Solar Plan to reflect changes in technology and meet increased demand for solar energy development. This plan analyzes five additional western states (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming), in addition to the six states analyzed in the original plan.
“The updated Western Solar Plan is a responsible, pragmatic strategy for developing solar energy on our nation’s public lands that supports national clean energy goals and long-term national energy security,” BLM said director Tracy Stone-Manning. “It will encourage the responsible development of solar energy to locations with fewer potential conflicts while helping the nation transition to a clean energy economy, furthering the BLM’s mission to promote the health, diversity and productivity of public lands to be preserved for the use and enjoyment of current and future generations. ”
Proposed solar projects will still undergo site-specific environmental review and public comment. This final statement follows a draft released for public comment in January 2024, with input from stakeholders who will help BLM implement additional updates that will help protect wildlife habitat, migration corridors and other important resources, while providing industry clarity on low-conflict areas and project design approaches to guide responsible development.
To date, the Biden-Harris administration has approved 40 renewable energy projects on public lands (nine solar, 13 geothermal and 18 gen-ties), meeting its goal of permitting 25 GW by 2025. In total, BLM has now authorized clean energy projects. on public lands with a total capacity of approximately 29 GW of power – enough to power more than 12 million homes. This year, BLM also issued a final Renewable Energy Rule intended to reduce energy costs for consumers and the cost of developing solar and wind projects, improve project application processes, and incentivize developers to responsibly develop solar and wind projects on public to continue developing land.
The release of the final programmatic environmental impact statement for utility-scale solar and proposed changes to the resource management plan initiates a 30-day protest period and a 60-day consistency review by the Governor. After resolving any remaining issues identified in this phase, the BLM will publish the Record of Decision and the Final Resource Management Plan Amendments.
The proposed Western Solar Plan builds on President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which aims to transition the nation to clean energy, lower energy costs for consumers, create union jobs, tackle the climate crisis to promote clean air and environmental justice policies and priorities, with the goal of achieving a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035. Earlier this year, BLM exceeded its goal of permitting more than 25 GW of clean energy projects on public lands, and the updated Western Solar Plan will support continued progress on responsible permitting.
“One of the fastest ways to decarbonize our electric grid is to greenlight well-planned clean energy development on federal lands, and the improvements to this environmental assessment document will certainly help,” said Ben Norris, VP of regulatory affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association. (SEIA). “We will continue to work with BLM and other federal agencies to promote responsible clean energy development on public lands and streamline the permitting process.”
News release from the Bureau of Land Management