“President Obama’s comprehensive energy strategy calls for rapid development of renewable energy, especially on America’s public lands,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. “This environmentally-sensitive plan will identify appropriate Interior-managed lands that have excellent solar energy potential and limited conflicts with wildlife, other natural resources or land users. With coordinated environmental studies, good land-use planning and zoning and priority processing, we can accelerate responsible solar energy production that will help build a clean-energy economy for the 21st century.”
The land is divided into 24 Solar Energy Study Areas spread across six western states and could generate nearly 100,000 MW of solar electricity. The department will evaluate the possible environmental impacts of solar production in these areas as well as their energy resources.
"The objective is to provide landscape-scale planning and zoning for solar projects on (Bureau of Land Management) lands in the West, allowing a more efficient process for permitting and siting responsible solar development," the department said.
The Interior Department created a special task force in March to identify the specific areas on public lands where the government could act rapidly to create large-scale renewable energy production.
Rhone Resch, President of the Solar Energy Industries Association welcomed the department's announcement: "Requiring BLM to perform environmental impact analyses of the Solar Energy Study Areas will ensure responsible development of solar energy on public lands and would expedite the permitting process for these projects," Resch said. "In short, everyone wins."
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