{"id":1591,"date":"2012-07-27T08:57:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T13:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2012-07-27T08:57:26","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T13:57:26","slug":"final-programmatic-eis-establishes-plan-for-southwestern-solar-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/27\/final-programmatic-eis-establishes-plan-for-southwestern-solar-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Programmatic EIS Establishes Plan for Southwestern Solar Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><em>By Katee Kline, Legal Intern<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On July 24, the Department of the Interior released a final programmatic environmental impact statement (<a href=\"https:\/\/solareis.anl.gov\/documents\/fpeis\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">PEIS<\/a>)\u00a0identifying prime areas for solar development, approving seventeen large-scale energy projects on public lands, and outlining the procedure for approval of similar projects.\u00a0 The PEIS, authored by the DOI\u2019s Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy, should allow for faster permitting of large-scale solar energy projects and is hailed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar as a \u201ckey milestone in building a sustainable foundation for utility-scale solar energy development and conservation on public lands over the next two decades.\u201d<sup>1<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>This comprehensive plan to facilitate solar development is part of President Obama\u2019s energy policy, which focuses largely on obtaining energy from domestic sources.\u00a0 The seventeen already-approved projects are expected to produce nearly 6,000 MW of electricity, and the projected development of BLM-administered lands addressed in the PEIS is expected to produce about 24,000 MW over the next twenty years.\u00a0 6,000 MW is enough electricity to power roughly 1.8 million homes; 24,000 is enough to power seven million.<\/p>\n<p>The PEIS addressed the six southwestern states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.\u00a0 Part of the study consisted of mapping these states into zones based on their solar development potential; factors considered include availability of solar resources, transmission potential, and likely conflict of development with an area\u2019s biological, cultural, and historical resources.\u00a0 285,000 acres are designated as priority areas for development; this land includes the seventeen greenlighted projects.\u00a0 Development will be allowed on roughly 19 million additional acres.\u00a0 A majority of the land surveyed, more than 78 million acres, will be closed for solar development based on a balancing of the above factors, though the Department of the Interior announced that it will reassess the need for additional solar energy zones every five years, at minimum.<\/p>\n<p>Solar energy development projected to result from this PEIS should be valuable in helping to reach our national clean energy goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0 Though implementation of the solar projects will result in a temporary adverse effect on local air quality, the DOI claims, \u201coverall, CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions could be reduced if solar energy production avoids fossil fuel energy production\u2026. If the pace of solar energy development is faster as a result of DOE\u2019s proposed action, the potential beneficial impacts of reduced GHG emissions would be realized at a faster rate.\u201d<sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0 Advocates of solar energy and environmental protection have reacted favorably to the DOI\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup>https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/news\/pressreleases\/Obama-Administration-Releases-Roadmap-for-Solar-Energy-Development-on-Public-Lands.cfm<\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> Department of the Interior, Final PSEIS, pp 26, 43.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Katee Kline, Legal Intern On July 24, the Department of the Interior released a final programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS)\u00a0identifying prime areas for solar development, approving seventeen large-scale energy projects on public lands, and outlining the procedure for approval of similar projects.\u00a0 The PEIS, authored by the DOI\u2019s Bureau of Land Management and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":829,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5680,5676,5669],"tags":[5668,9431,9427],"class_list":{"0":"post-1591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-clean-energy","7":"category-nepa","8":"category-solar-power","9":"tag-land-use","10":"tag-nepa","11":"tag-solar-power","12":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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