In response to President Trump’s order to review regulations
that unnecessarily impede energy development, the Bureau of Land Management
announced today that it will consider amending the Desert Renewable
Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) to seek greater opportunities for renewable
energy generation.
The BLM will publish a Federal Register notice this week to
open a 45-day public comment period on the Desert Renewable Energy Plan
(DRECP), which covers about 10.8 million acres of BLM-managed public
land. On September 14, 2016, the BLM issued the Record of Decision for
the DRECP, which made only 7 percent of the area available for renewable energy
leasing.
“We need to reduce burdens on all domestic energy
development, including solar, wind and other renewables,” said Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Katharine MacGregor. “This
process will help us find ways to make more federal land available for
renewable energy projects as well as wireless broadband infrastructure.”
President’s Trump Executive Order 13783, “Promoting Energy
Independence and Economic Growth,” directs agencies to review all actions that
could “potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced
energy sources.” A second Executive Order called “Streamlining and
Expediting Requests to Locate Broadband Facilities in Rural America” directs
Federal agencies “…to reduce barriers to capital investment [and] remove
obstacles to broadband services” in order to foster rural broadband.
In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an order in
2008 requiring 33 percent of California’s energy production to come from
renewable sources by 2020. More recently, Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. signed
into law a measure requiring retail sellers and publicly owned utilities to get
50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2030.
Renewable energy associations and local governments
expressed concerns to the Department of the Interior that the DRECP did not
designate enough public lands for future renewable energy development.
Furthermore, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and the Blythe Council
said the regulatory burdens created by the DRECP would make projects too costly
to build, put undue pressure on private lands, and inhibit economic growth and
job creation. These entities recommended a more efficient, streamlined
and balanced approach to renewable energy development on both public and
private lands.
The comments sought in this new Federal Register notice will
be used to help set the parameters, or scope, of the review of the Desert
Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). In particular, the notice
asks for comments on how land designations identified in the plan might affect
development of solar, wind or other renewable energy resources.
The entire DRECP planning area covers approximately 22.6
million acres of both federal and non-federal land in seven counties: Imperial,
Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego. The
Federal Register notice specifies that the BLM will consider amendments to the
California Desert Conservation Area, the Bakersfield Resource Management Plan,
and the Bishop Resource Management Plan.
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