Former Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne issued a Secretarial Order on January 16 authorizing the Bureau of Land Management to establish coordination offices that to expedite the permitting of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal projects, along with needed electrical transmission facilities, on BLM-managed lands.
The action advances efforts to achieve a Congressional goal of 10,000 megawatts (MW) of non-hydropower renewable energy projects on the public lands by 2015.
“At a time when America is crying out for renewable forms of energy, it is critical that the Federal government expedite the development of wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal resources on public lands,” Kempthorne said in a release.
The to-be-established energy offices, known as Renewable Energy Coordination Offices, will be designated by the BLM and will initially be located in those states where the greatest interest has been shown in renewable energy development: Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming.
“These new offices will not only support the timely processing of renewable energy project applications, but also will ensure that renewable energy projects and electrical transmission facilities comply with all environmental laws and regulations,” BLM Director Jim Caswell said.
Among those laws are the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.
The Renewable Energy Coordination Offices will be staffed by BLM employees from a variety of natural resource disciplines, and will also receive staff support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other bureaus within the Department of the Interior.
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