Jul 03 2008

BLM Lifts Freeze On Solar Power Applications In West

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

The federal Bureau of Land Management has lifted a freeze on solar power project applications in six Western states and will accept new applications for solar development on public land. BLM ordered a freeze on new applications at the end of May while it would study the environmental, economic and social impacts of projects on land in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

"We heard the concerns expressed during the scoping period about waiting to consider new applications and we are taking action," James Caswell, BLM director, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Solar Energy Industries Association welcomed the lifting of the moratorium, but Rhone Resch, president of the industry group, said: "BLM has only resolved half the problem. They have yet to approve a single solar energy project. Expediting the permitting process is the next step in developing solar energy projects on federal lands."

BLM has received about 130 applications for solar developments with a potential to power more than 20 million homes.

Comments (0) digg delicioussend to a friendprint entry

Categories

Energy , Environment , Solar

Leave a comment


E-mail this post


Your Name:
Your Friend's Email:

Subscribe to Blog rssIcon

> Go

Recent Comments

  • Ultra-capacitors have the potential to replace batteries in electric cars, and appear close to being commercially viable. They don't require rare resources. -Steve Bonn
    > view entry


  • The Salar Uyuni salt lake in Bolivia has been described at the “world’s largest lithium resource” for over forty years and early in 2009 the world press has continued to describe it as such. However, the potential for Uyuni has been greatly overstated given the state of knowledge we have of the resource. Lithium mining is difficult and the processing in the case of Uyuni will be tricky. Further deep drilling exploration is required before we actually can determine its true potential to actually produce lithium carbonate for batteries. At this time our estimate of the lithium resource has a very wide range – true it could be large (it even may be the world’s largest resource) but it also could turn out to be only a minor source of lithium! http://trugroup.com/Uyuni-lithium.html TRU Group Inc - Lithium Consultants. April 20, 2009 -TRU
    > view entry


  • We've got to be united to save earth! Earth Hour is practised at large scale in all developed and developing countries but there has been more publicity and awareness this year, as well as participation from large corporations like http://www.commit21.com/ which is a good sign - that there is still hope and that people still care! Let's all do this, no matter where you are! Saturday, 28 March 2009. Lights off from 8.30pm to 9.30pm! Nature Concern -Nature Concern
    > view entry