US proposes new rule to speed up solar and wind development on federal lands

The US Department of Interior (DoI) has proposed a new rule to accelerate solar and wind development on US public lands, part of a broader push by President Joe Biden’s administration to permit 25GW of renewable energy projects by 2025 as required by federal law.

To date, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which administers about 12% of the country’s landmass and is part of DoI, has authorised more than 13GW of capacity including geothermal, according to the agency. About 8.1GW has been greenlighted since Biden took office in January 2021.

Federal lands, located mainly in western states, contain a large swath of the best quality untapped solar and wind resource that Biden wants to employ to help achieve his headline climate goal of a net-zero electric grid by 2035.

“Our public lands are playing a critical role in the clean energy transition,” said Tracy Stone-Manning, director of BLM, based in Washington, DC.

BLM said its proposed Renewable Energy Rule would cut development fees for existing and new authorisations by 80%, streamline review of applications, and deliver greater certainty for the private sector.

The proposed rule “would codify further reductions, improving financial predictability for developers pursuing long-term projects on public land,” it said.

The agency is hopeful that lower fees would entice developers of smaller-scale projects or those that “are on the margins of being economically profitable” to locate them on federal lands.

Until now, development has been limited to large, well-capitalised industry players able to navigate through costly and time-consuming federal permitting processes and overcome interconnection challenges.

The proposed rule would expand BLM’s ability to accept leasing applications in so-called priority areas for wind and solar development without first going through a full auction, something the industry has sought.

The agency could then accept non-competitive leasing applications when they are in the public interest without relinquishing its ability to hold competitive auctions where appropriate and consistent with past practice.

The proposed rule is open for public comment for 60 days.

That plan included Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. BLM is considering whether to expand this solar planning effort to include Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.

Last December, BLM began preparing a so-called programmatic environmental impact statement that will consider and analyse the environmental effects of updates to the plan. This process will inform the agency’s efforts to identify new areas for development.