Grazers want rights maintained as BLM launches land auctions

Grazing interests will look on with interest in late October when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) hosts the first competitive auction for three parcels of public lands in two Solar Energy Zones (SEZ) in Colorado. The sealed and oral bid auction will mark the first of what are expected to be a growing number of sales aimed at developing utility-scale solar projects on public lands in 17 BLM-designated zones covering 280,000 acres across six southwestern states. Identified last October, the zones are part of a Western Solar Plan the Obama administration hopes will help generate an additional 20,000 megawatts of electricity from public lands by 2020 and “ensure a fair return to taxpayers for the commercial use of these lands,” said Helen Hankins, BLM's Colorado state director. Another two zones were designated earlier this year. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department oversees the BLM, told a national clean energy conference last month that the plan will incorporate what officials are calling a “smart-from-the start” approach to renewable energy development on public lands. Groups like the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) have taken little public stance on the latest developments. But Chase Adams, NCBA's director of communications, says it's his group's position that federal lands be managed for multiple use, as federal law states. “So, we oppose single use areas such as solar zones when they negatively impact grazing on public lands,” Adams said. “We're not opposed to the sale of public lands for development such as solar zones, so long as the rights of ranchers are not negatively impacted. Federal grazing permits are a property right interest.”...more