Conservation groups press for big game habitat exclusions in federal solar energy initiative

 

The Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to expand its Western solar energy initiative should be modified to carve out big game migration routes and critical wintering habitat in Wyoming, according to several conservation groups. 

But the agency’s “programmatic” environmental impact statement at least provides a high-level blueprint to avoid piecemeal leasing decisions that often lead to conservation and energy development conflicts, they say.

The BLM wants to increase solar energy production on federal lands 15-fold over the next 20 years, from about 9,200 megawatts to 130,000 megawatts, according to the agency. BLM’s proposal includes five alternatives for where it might offer leases for industrial-scale solar energy development, including the 18 million surface acres the agency manages in Wyoming...more