DOI, CA Sign Agreement to Spur Renewable Energy

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday signed what they called “a model of federal-state initiative and cooperation” to spur renewable energy development on U.S. lands in California.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) is the first between the federal government and a state that concerns energy production. It calls for:

• Establishing a Renewable Energy Policy Group of senior policy representatives to guide the cooperative work
• Developing a strategy to identify areas suitable and acceptable for renewable energy development
• Identifying renewable energy zones based on renewable energy development potential and environmental, wildlife and conservation criteria
• Prioritizing application processing for solar development in renewable energy zones
• Coordinate with federal and state agencies to identify energy and transmission needs and opportunities and designate transmission needs and corridors.

“Together, we are creating a framework to expedite a robust, science-based process for siting, reviewing, approving and permitting renewable energy projects on Interior-managed lands in California,” Salazar said.

“We know our future is in clean power, clean energy and clean technology, and we are taking action so California will be able to meet its ambitious renewable energy and environmental goals,”  Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger has set a state goal of receiving one-third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, which will require a substantial increase in the state’s development of qualified Renewable Portfolio Standards energy projects. The Obama Administration has encouraged the expanded use of renewable energy and launched initiatives to spur the development of these resources on U.S. public lands, most of which are managed by the Department of the Interior.

As part of the MOU, Interior and state agencies will not only expedite the siting, permitting and processing of renewable energy projects but also develop a timeline that provides applicants for these projects with permitting schedules required to meet the recovery act’s Dec. 1, 2010 deadline for beginning construction.

Salazar’s Secretarial Order 3285, one of his first directives at Interior, makes the production, development, and delivery of renewable energy one of the Department’s highest priorities and directs Interior agencies to work collaboratively with other federal agencies States, local communities and private landowners to encourage the timely and responsible development of renewable energy and associated transmission, while protecting and enhancing the Nation’s water, wildlife, cultural, and other natural resources.

Interior manages one-fifth of the land in the United States, much of it in the West–including California–managed by its Bureau of Land Management. The Department has set aside 1,000 square miles of public lands in 24 “Solar Energy Study Areas” that it is evaluating for solar energy development across the West.

On Sunday Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating a feed-in tariff in California for small-scale solar power systems.