Climate change threatens our communities and treasured public lands. To combat this crisis, we need a swift transition to renewable energy: that includes phasing out fossil fuels, building energy-efficient infrastructure, and ramping up rooftop solar panels and larger-scale clean energy projects.
The good news? The West boasts abundant solar, wind and geothermal resources that can help us achieve this transition.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is currently revising the 2012 Western Solar Plan, which guides solar energy development on public lands in certain states. Revising and expanding the plan is a crucial step in shaping the future of renewable energy development on public lands.
The updated Western Solar Plan aims to help President Biden’s ambitious goal of a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035.
The Western Solar Plan will designate areas where BLM will consider solar project proposals, while also identifying sensitive areas that are off-limits to solar. It’s not perfect—but it’s a great starting point that can be improved on as we make the urgent switch to renewable energy.
BLM should prioritize building on “disturbed” lands: The plan should say large-scale solar projects can only be built on lands that are already “disturbed or degraded”—places that don’t have much in the way of wild, interconnected habitat and ecosystems. Guiding applications to these lowest conflict places would lead to faster, better projects.
The BLM has approved 47 projects since 2021, including solar, geothermal and power lines to connect these projects to the grid. This highlights the Biden administration's efforts to expand renewable energy production on public lands. The Western Solar Plan continues those efforts while serving as one of a package of executive actions that together can make the Biden administration's commitment to a holistic, conservation-minded approach to managing public lands a reality.