The Bureau of Land Management released its final environmental review of the Desert Renewable Energy and Conservation Plan Tuesday. The plan attempts to identify appropriate development areas for renewable energy projects in California, while setting aside 5.3 million acres for conservation of critical natural resources and wildlife habitat, and 3.8 million acres for recreation, on more than 10 million acres of federal public lands in the California desert that are managed by the BLM. The BLM says the lands have the potential to generate up to 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy in Phase I, through solar, wind, and geothermal energy.
Phase 1 also includes national conservation lands and areas of critical environmental concern to conserve biological and cultural resources; these lands would be closed to renewable energy. Ryan Henson, senior policy director for the California Wilderness Coalition, said he is pleased that this revised proposal protects the Mojave Trails area north of Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park, home to many iconic species such as the desert bighorn sheep, the desert tortoise and the Mohave ground squirrel.
“We’ve been struggling over the past year to get the BLM to protect particular landscapes like the Silurian Valley and the Cadiz Valley,” he said, “and we’re very excited to see those places being proposed for protection.
Some renewable energy activists were unhappy that only 388,000 acres were allotted for development, but Ken Rait, director of U.S. Public Lands for Pew Charitable Trusts, said the deal strikes the right balance between conservation and development.
“It creates certainty for the renewable-energy industry, the off-road vehicle community and miners, so that they know where developments may be able to occur in order to avoid the most ecologically sensitive lands.”
An informational webinar will be held on Thursday, November 19, at 10:00 a.m. to present concepts and changes between the draft and final plans. The notice of availability for these documents will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, November 13, which begins a 30-day period to file protests against the plan, after which the Interior Department will issue a Record of Decision. For more information, see links at this story at z1077fm.com.
Webinar details are available at www.drecp.org and www.blm.gov/ca/drecp.
