The Bureau of Land Management has released it’s final draft of the Western Solar Plan. This plan will prioritize areas in which solar farms could potentially be built. 31 million acres will be available for streamlined permitting for solar development on these public lands. They are prioritizing lands near transmission lines and previously disturbed lands avoiding sensitive and protected lands. Lands have to be either close to transmission lines or in previously disturbed lands. They excluded lands with a grade of 10% of higher, not all special recreation management areas would be excluded. The BLM altered the definitions for transmission line proximity and previously disturbed land in order to accommodate and include more lands within this plan.
The requirements to be granted streamlined permitting and approval for solar developments: Transmission lines within 15 miles of existing or planned transmission lines or energy corridor or be on previously disturbed public lands, aka where we recreate.
The standards in which they used to determine “disturbed lands” are derived from the Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP)e ecological potential data maps. These datasets show the departure of current vegetation conditions relative to expected vegetation cover in the absence of anthropogenic disturbance. These datasets are often interpreted to show the degree of vegetation departure since human settlement.
Shortly after the Western Solar Plan was released, several new solar proposals were released:
Below are a list of current solar proposals that the BLM is accepting public comment on.
Cowboy Solar Project September 30, 2024
Easley Solar September 20, 2024
Esmeralda Seven Solar October 24, 2024
Samantha Solar September 19, 2024
Final Western Solar Plan 9/30/24
Put all the wind turbines and solar farms on the west side of Mount Hood and Mount Rainer.
the desert is to fragile to recover from this use of the land. please put the solar on the roofs of buildings.