In 2024, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department of Interior and BLM finalized the Western Solar Plan. This plan expanded the amount of acreage that would be prioritized for solar companies to lease and build industrial scale solar farms on public lands. While promoted as a climate-focused effort to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, this plan represents one of the largest privatizations of public land in recent history, prioritizing industrial-scale solar development over multiple-use.

In its final form, the Western Solar plan identified 31 million acres of public land that would be eligible for fast-track approval for industrial solar farm leases. Within the 31 million acres of public land identified for solar development, the plan approves for at least 700,000 of these acres to be closed off and turned into solar farms across the West, including Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and New Mexico.

The Map below is the final official map produced by the BLM. The lands in Green are lands that are eligible to be sold off to solar farms. Since the designation criteria included already disturbed lands, many recreation areas are included in the plan. It’s also impossible to fast track 31 million acres of public land for development that don’t also include beloved public lands where we camp, explore, hunt, fish, and ride.

This isn’t a proposal or hypothetical map. The Plan was already passed by Congress and these are the public lands identified by the Department of Interior available for sale.

Green Areas on this Map are at Immediate Risk to be Sold to Solar Developers

>> Click Here to View Map in Separate Browser Window <<

Take Action to Rescind the Western Solar Plan

As we have already seen with solar projects across the West, public lands for these projects are on the chopping block because these projects require vast amounts of land in order to achieve the proposed goals. Since the BLM directive in identifying sellable lands for the project prioritized lands that were already “disturbed”, the disposal of this type of land at this scale inherently and adversely affects recreation, especially off-roading, overlanding, horse-back riding, mountain biking, hunting and free, primitive dispersed camping.

Solar energy should be developed in urban areas before it is allowed to consume millions of acres of public land. We don’t believe the current plan appropriately took into consideration the multi-use directives of public land management, especially with the recent passing of the EXPLORE Act and executive orders including Make America Beautiful Again that protect and promote recreation. We’re asking the public to petition the government to withdraw the Western Solar Plan to save our lands from one of the largest privatization public land grabs in history.

If you’d like to dive deeper, including why solar projects may be accelerate and why executive orders are not enough, find more reading after the form.

HELP US RESCIND THIS PLAN – FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW

Timeline of the Western Solar Plan

2005–2012 – The Bush and Obama administrations begin laying groundwork for renewable energy corridors and solar energy zones (SEZs) on federal lands.

2012 – The first Western Solar Plan is approved, covering six states and identifying SEZs where solar development would be prioritized.

2022 – The Inflation Reduction Act passes, allocating historic levels of funding and policy momentum toward large-scale solar and wind projects.

January 2023 – BLM announces it will revise the Western Solar Plan to expand eligible lands from ~285,000 acres to additional 700,000 acres allocated from 31 million acres. It also expands the plan from six states to eleven states.

September 2024 – The revised Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) is finalized and the Western Solar Plan is approved.

Since the approval in 2024, dozens of utility-scale solar project proposals encompassing over 90,000 acres are already pushing forward across the West including:

• Dodge Flat II Solar: 500 acres, draft environmental assessment
• Pinyon Solar: 1,788 acres, draft environmental assessment
• Jove Solar: 3,495 acres, signed decision January 3, 2025
• Rough Hat Clark Solar: 2,400 acres, signed decision January 14, 2025
• Libra Solar: 5,778 acres, signed decision September 10, 2024
• Elisabeth Solar: 1,411 acres, signed decision April 25, 2025
• Jove Solar: 3,495 acres, signed decision January 3, 2025
• Star Range Solar: 4,288 acres, scoping
• Bonanza Solar: 5,133 acres,
• Esmeralda Solar: 62,300 acres, draft environmental impact statement
• Golden Currant Solar:
• Copper Rays Solar: 4,400 acres, draft environmental impact statement

Solar Farm Development on Public Lands Could Accelerate

In July 2025, Congress enacted, and President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”), a far-reaching legislative package that, among other provisions, terminates major federal subsidies for solar energy development. This action, reinforced by a subsequent executive order, represents the most significant rollback of federal solar energy incentives in over two decades. But the result could accelerate solar developments in the short term.

Legislative Termination of Solar Energy Tax Credits

The OBBBA phases out the Clean Electricity Production Credit and the Clean Electricity Investment Credit, previously known as the Energy Investment Tax Credit— two cornerstone incentives established under the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) to promote wind and solar energy deployment. Under the new law:

• Any solar or wind project placed in service after December 31, 2027, will no longer qualify for these tax credits.
• Projects that begin construction within one year of the bill’s enactment (i.e., by July 4, 2026) may still qualify under prior law, but only if they are placed in service before the end of 2027.
• Projects owned by or receiving “material assistance” from Prohibited Foreign Entities (“PFEs”) may be ineligible for federal energy tax credits.

The statute is clear: after 2027, federal subsidies for new utility-scale solar projects will end unless reinstated by Congress.

Implementation Timeline

The law imposes a sharp and accelerated schedule for the winddown of subsidies:

• July 4, 2025 – Enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
• July 4, 2026 – Final deadline to begin construction on any project seeking to claim § 45Y or § 48E credits.
• December 31, 2027 – Final deadline to place projects in service under the prior credit regime.

This tight timeline ensures a relatively swift transition out of subsidized solar deployment, with developers racing against fixed deadlines that cannot be extended administratively. This means we are likely to see a surge of applications prior to these expiration dates to build solar farms on the acreages identified in the Western Solar Plan.

The Lingering Risk

While the legislative and executive actions outlined above represent important corrective measures, it is essential to understand what they do not do. Notably, the legislation does not rescind or dismantle the “Western Solar Plan,” a policy framework first established in 2012 to streamline utility-scale solar development on public lands across six southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. In 2024, under the Biden administration, the plan was amended to include five additional states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.

Although this plan is not directly tied to federal tax credits, it creates a regulatory pathway that the current administration could use to fast track solar development. Future administrations could also easily reactivate this plan, especially since the underlying environmental analyses and rulemaking infrastructure remain intact. As such, even with subsidies repealed, the architecture for aggressive solar expansion remains on the shelf, ready to be reinstated by executive action alone.

This creates a risk of policy whiplash: today’s reforms may be reversed within three years, should a new administration come to office with a different energy agenda. Without rescission of the Western Solar Plan or codification of neutral, multiple-use land policy, the legal foundation for unilateral solar development persists.

The Practical Impact: 700,000+ Acres of Public Land Locked Away from the American People

Despite the repeal of tax incentives, the continued viability of the Western Solar Plan poses a significant and immediate threat to public land access – especially in the intervening time period prior to the expiration of the tax incentives. Under this plan, more than 700,000 acres of public land across Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and New Mexico could be designated as priority zones for utility-scale solar development. Even more concerning, however, is that the plan identifies approximately 31 million acres of public lands across these eleven western states as available for solar project applications, noting that “the larger available area allows for greater flexibility in considering solar proposals.” These designations, originally advanced through a programmatic environmental impact statement, remain legally operative and could be reactivated unilaterally, without further congressional approval.

If left unaddressed, the effect is clear: vast landscapes once open to camping, hiking, off-highway vehicle use, hunting, rock climbing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and other forms of outdoor recreation will be permanently withdrawn from public use. These lands will instead be restricted for industrial-scale solar development, which, due to fencing, security protocols, and environmental mitigation requirements, will exclude the American people entirely from accessing lands they own.

This is not hypothetical, this is the explicit purpose of the Western Solar Plan: to streamline public lands for solar developers at the expense of all other uses. The regulatory designation alone could also interfere with permits for recreational improvements or motorized access. 

While the OBBBA curtails subsidies, it does not dissolve these solar zones, nor does it restore recreational access to the 700,000+ acres now at risk. Without action, a future administration could revive the full implementation of the Western Solar Plan within weeks of taking office. Thus, unless these designations are formally rescinded or reclassified for multiple-use purposes, the American public risks losing access to vast swaths of land under a dormant policy that was never subjected to direct voter accountability.

Conclusion

In sum, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the accompanying executive order represent a decisive shift away from subsidized, utility-scale solar energy on public lands. For the first time since the early 2000s, the federal government is moving to treat solar energy as a market participant, not a taxpayer-dependent priority. But these reforms won’t kick in until the summer of 2026. And even after the subsidies are expired, unless the Western Solar Plan and other latent administrative programs are revisited and repealed, future administrations could simply resurrect these efforts, redirecting federal land use policy in the absence of congressional action.

To ensure the permanence of these reforms, further legal and regulatory measures must be pursued. We urge the public, policymakers, and stakeholders to remain engaged as implementation unfolds and to advocate for durable policy solutions that uphold the principles of energy neutrality and responsible, multi-use land management.

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