The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on August 29 announced its plan to make 31 million acres of public lands in 11 Western states available for private, utility-scale solar projects. Cheers are coming from the anti-growth constituency ranging from the Wall Street green corporate complex, to the booster groups, e.g. The Wilderness Society.
According to the BLM public announcement rules, the mandated 30-day public comment and protest period is coming to a close. The 60-day state governors’ review period is still underway.
The program involves designating lands, relaxing permitting requirements, and outright Federal financial support.
Power and land use experts, ranchers, and state officials are all raising the alarm over the new Fed action, pointing out that it was bad enough that the BLM has wanted to do this for quite awhile under the Biden-Harris green agenda. In January, 2024, the BLM said it was considering 22 million acres of federal lands for solar projects, and even up to 55 million acres.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 Western states, including Alaska. Traditional uses over decades have been licensed for livestock grazing, licensed mining, and similar economy-serving purposes.
The new BLM solar plan serves the purposes of the Biden “30 by 30” green mandate issued January 2021, calling for the reduction by 30% of U.S. land and water used for agriculture and other productive purposes by 2030. It is parallel with the European Union 2020 “Farm to Fork” mandates, against which European farmers led mass protests last Winter.
While solar can be categorized as an “economic” use under BLM mandate, its low energy level disqualifies it as a benefit to the nation. The directly affected states are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
