Environmental Law

Western Transmission, Solar Environmental Impacts, on Feds' To-Do List

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

Federal energy and land management officials have launched an effort to assess environmental impacts associated with booming solar developments in the Western United States.

While that's going on new applications for projects located on the Bureau of Land Management's vast holdings will not be accepted until after the process is completed, the government announced recently. The announcement also suggested officials are thinking about adding an element of competition to the application process.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Energy, one of the agencies involved in the solar assessment, separately said it is taking additional steps in cooperation with Western states to expedite energy transmission.

As Climate Law Update has reported previously, transmission and solar issues, including federal efforts to expedite new lines, have already sparked controversy. Transmission has been particularly contentious, generating legal action.  Federal officials have previously identified improvements to the transmission grid as one of the major challenges to expanding wind energy. 

Regarding solar development, energy officials and the land management bureau, a part of the Interior Department, are developing what's known as a "programmatic environmental impact statement" weighing environmental, social and economic effects. The document, which a Federal Register notice said is expected to take 22 months to produce, is intended to cover projects located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

A schedule of public meetings to discuss the project was laid out in the notice, beginning in mid-June.

The Federal Register notice said that the goal of the process was to develop and implement programs for the two agencies to "facilitate environmentally responsible utility-scale solar energy
development." The study area was limited to the six states because they "encompass the most prospective solar energy resources suitable for utility-scale development over the next 20 years," the notice said.

It added that the process was not intended to eliminate the need for site-specific environmental reviews on individual projects. 

The notice also divulged that BLM officials are considering whether to establish a solar program to supplement or replace existing policies, and that the process would be used to identify lands that are, and are not, suitable for solar projects. Not included in the environmental assessment would be areas within national monuments, wilderness areas or under similar restrictions. The bureau manages 258 million acres in 12 states.

The energy department, meanwhile, would use the process to consider developing its own solar energy "program of environmental policies and mitigation strategies that would apply to the deployment of solar energy projects" it supports, according to the notice.  

The BLM's press announcement and the Federal Register notice said while the environmental process is ongoing the agency would concentrate on the 125 applications it has already received before accepting any right-of-way proposals. Those existing applications cover nearly a million acres of land and include projects with the potential to generate more than 70 billion watts of electricity.

New applications, depending on the outcome of the environmental assessment, might be accepted through a competitive process, "which is likely to attract companies with the experience and resources necessary to quickly deploy solar energy projects."

Regarding the transmission issue, the energy department said it planned to contribute as much as $2.3 million to identify areas in the West "with vast renewable energy resources, and expedite the development and delivery of those resources to meet regional energy needs." The Western Renewable Energy Zones project was to be carried out under a cooperative agreement with the Western Governors' Association.

According to the project's web site, 11 states, two Canadian provinces, and areas in Mexico that are part of the Western Interconnection would all participate.

(Pictured: Photovoltaic plant near Alamosa, Colorado, built by SunEdison; U.S. Department of Energy/National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Credit: Tom Stoffel) 

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).