8/7/2023 0 Comments Las vegas west wind drive in![]() ![]() It would also allow for restoration of ecosystems that more closely match the area being developed - especially in states such as Nevada, where the federal government owns most of the land. The new rule would give renewable energy companies another option, McConville said. Right now, that kind of environmental “mitigation” is typically limited to privately owned lands. The rule would allow for “conservation leasing,” in which companies looking to build renewable energy projects on public lands could pay to restore wildlife habitat elsewhere in the federal domain, or to protect areas that might otherwise get developed. “This is obviously a national priority, and something that has prioritized internally in our structure,” she said.Ĭonservation activists, meanwhile, see the proposed rule as a potential boon for renewable energy.ĭrew McConville, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress, said the regulation would benefit clean energy by giving solar and wind developers a new way to compensate for environmental harm from their projects. “We are really looking to find that balance.”Īnd what if the bureau’s local staffers use the new rule as an opportunity to throw up roadblocks to clean energy? Culver didn’t want to go there, telling me, “we’re not going to speculate on day-to-day interactions like that that may happen.” Because if they’re not resilient, if they’re not functioning, then they can’t support clear air and clean water and wildlife, and they can’t support renewable energy development and all of these other uses,” Culver said. “We’re seeking to support the overall resilience of public lands. Overall, Culver said, the proposed regulation would give the agency more and better information about which public lands should be set aside to protect ecosystems and recreation, and which are most suitable for renewable energy development. She also noted that energy projects aren’t automatically disallowed in Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. Nada Culver, a deputy director at the Bureau of Land Management, disagreed with the solar industry’s reading of the “rangeland health” standards, saying the standards account for different types of terrain and wouldn’t unfairly preclude solar facilities in the desert. And public lands are some of the easiest, cheapest places to build.įederal officials told me they’re confident the new rule wouldn’t stop that from happening. He’s right: Even with large amounts of rooftop solar, experts say it won’t be possible to eliminate coal, oil and natural gas without a gargantuan number of big solar and wind farms. “We can’t do this at scale without involving some large areas of land that are currently devoid of development,” Weiner said. meet Biden’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2035, which will require not only replacing today’s fossil-fueled power plants, but also producing enough energy to fuel hundreds of millions of electric cars and home heat pumps. ![]() The Bureau of Land Management is currently reviewing 74 applications for renewable energy projects on public lands. ![]() “And we believe that the result of that will be that for one reason or another, these projects will be delayed and denied.” ![]() Under the draft regulation, “you have delegated these decisions to local field officers,” Weiner told me. In theory, those changes are compatible with building lots of renewable energy, fast, on public lands.īut Peter Weiner, a lawyer working for the Sacramento-based Large-scale Solar Assn., said the rule could empower Bureau of Land Management staffers who don’t want to see solar and wind farms in their backyards, giving local offices greater ability to reject renewable energy projects - even if that’s not how their bosses in Washington, D.C., want to see things play out. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |