BLM ups its ambitious plan for solar on public land

The Biden administration is proposing to set aside some 22 million acres of federal land in 11 western states for solar electric generation. The administration move would update its 2012 Western Solar Plan. It adds 5.4 million acres in five states — Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington state, and Wyoming – to the 16.6 million acres set aside in 2012 in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management used some $4.3 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds to conduct the analysis leading to the increase in what it informally calls its “Solar Roadmap.” The agency contracted with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory “to examine forecasts for national clean energy needs and determined that approximately 700,000 acres of public lands would be needed to meet those goals,” according to a BLM news release. NREL’s work made a major contribution to BLM’s 538-page draft environmental impact statement.

In the news release, Laura Daniel-Davis, Interior’s acting deputy secretary, said, “The Interior Department’s work to responsibly and quickly develop renewable energy projects is crucial to achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 – and this updated solar roadmap will help us get there in more states and on more lands across the West.”

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