Notice of Availability of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development and Notice of Public Meetings, 3687-3689 [2024-00730]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• Bureau of Land Management

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3687-3689]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-00730]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[BLM_HQ_FRN_MO4500177363]


Notice of Availability of the Draft Programmatic Environmental 
Impact Statement for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development and Notice 
of Public Meetings

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 
prepared a Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for 
Utility-scale Solar Energy Development and associated Resource 
Management Plan (RMP) Amendments and by this notice is providing 
information announcing the opening of the comment period on the Draft 
Programmatic EIS.

DATES: This notice announces the opening of a 90-day comment period for 
the Draft Programmatic EIS beginning with the date following the 
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) publication of its Notice of 
Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register.
    To afford the BLM the opportunity to consider comments in the 
course of preparing the Proposed RMP Amendments/Final Programmatic EIS, 
please ensure your comments are received prior to the close of the 90-
day

[[Page 3688]]

comment period or 15 days after the last public meeting, whichever is 
later.
    The BLM will hold two virtual and six in-person public meetings 
during the comment period. Public meetings will commence on February 5, 
2024, with the first being a virtual meeting. In-person public meetings 
will be held in the following cities:

 Boise, Idaho;
 Cedar City, Utah;
 Las Vegas, Nevada;
 Yuma, Arizona;
 Grand Junction, Colorado; and
 Albuquerque, New Mexico.

    Additional information for all public meetings is available at the 
project website listed in the addresses section below.

ADDRESSES: The Draft Programmatic EIS is available for review on the 
BLM ePlanning project website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022371/510.
    Written comments related to the Draft Programmatic EIS may be 
submitted by any of the following methods:
     Website: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022371/510.
     Email: [email protected].
     Mail: BLM, Attn: Draft Solar EIS, 1849 C Street NW, 
Washington, DC 20240.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeremy Bluma, Senior Advisor, National 
Renewable Energy Coordination Office, BLM Headquarters, email: 
[email protected] or telephone: (208) 789-6014. Individuals in the United 
States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech 
disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 
telecommunications relay services for contacting Mr. Bluma. Individuals 
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within 
their country to make international calls to the point of contact in 
the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document provides notice that the BLM 
has prepared, in collaboration with Cooperating Agencies, a Draft 
Programmatic EIS and is announcing the opening of the comment period. 
The Final Programmatic EIS may support a series of RMP amendments 
following its completion. The Draft Programmatic EIS identifies the 
land use plans that may be amended.
    The planning area is located within the 11 States of Arizona, 
California (excluding the lands covered by the Desert Renewable Energy 
Conservation Plan in seven southern California counties), Colorado, 
Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and 
Wyoming and encompasses approximately 162 million acres of BLM-
administered public land.
    The BLM is undertaking this programmatic evaluation to assess the 
potential environmental, cultural, and economic impacts of modifying 
its current solar energy program across the 11 Western States. 
Potential modifications, through land use plan amendments, are being 
considered to improve management consistency regarding utility-scale 
solar energy development, advance national renewable energy development 
priorities and goals, and address changes in solar technologies that 
have occurred since the BLM's last solar energy planning effort in 
2012. Potential land use plan amendments would align with the 
principles of multiple use and sustained yield, consistent with FLPMA. 
Under FLPMA, the BLM strives to make land use decisions that meet the 
Nation's many needs, are environmentally responsible, and take into 
account the use and enjoyment of the public lands by present and future 
generations. The BLM seeks to advance its solar energy program 
consistent with balanced management for other important land uses such 
as recreational use; agricultural use, such as grazing; other energy 
and mineral development; resource protection, including National 
Monuments and National Conservation Areas; wilderness areas and 
wilderness study areas; other specially designated areas; wildlife and 
big game; water resources; cultural, historical, and paleontological 
resources; and restoration of lands and resources where appropriate.

Purpose and Need

    The purpose of the proposed action is to facilitate improved siting 
of utility-scale solar energy development by identifying areas of BLM-
administered lands where solar energy development proposals may 
encounter fewer resource conflicts as ``solar application areas'' and 
identifying areas of public lands with known high potential for 
resource conflicts as ``exclusion areas.'' There is a need to improve 
the solar development application process by providing development 
opportunities in specified ``solar application areas'' while 
maintaining sufficient flexibility to account for site-specific 
resource considerations on a case-by-case basis as part of subsequent 
project-specific decisions. Although additional site-specific 
environmental analysis under NEPA will be needed to support project-
level decisions to authorize utility-scale solar energy development, 
this macro-scale programmatic land use planning effort will provide a 
framework for making those decisions in a systematic and consistent 
way. Applications processed under this framework are expected to have a 
higher likelihood of alignment with the BLM's multiple use and 
sustained yield mission than under current land use plans, leading to 
more expedient processing without jeopardizing critical resources or 
other uses of public lands.
    This programmatic planning effort also responds to changes that 
have occurred since the BLM's last programmatic solar development 
planning effort. First, utility-scale solar energy development on and 
off public lands has significantly increased and is expected to 
continue to increase in view of a growing public interest in carbon 
pollution-free energy generation. Second, due to technological 
advancements and economic forces affecting power markets, the 
composition of proposed solar energy generation projects is now 
different, with one example being a focus by solar developers in the 
United States on using photovoltaic technology rather than solar 
thermal facilities. Third, due to some of the technological 
advancements mentioned above, the BLM is receiving increased interest 
in utility-scale solar energy development on public lands at more 
northern latitudes.
    In response to these changes, the BLM needs to update its 
administration of the public lands to facilitate responsible siting of 
solar energy development. The BLM seeks to accomplish this by amending 
its land use plans in the 11 Western States to identify areas more 
suitable for solar development while appropriately excluding solar 
energy development applications from areas where protection is 
warranted based on critical need(s). Potential land use plan amendments 
may also involve updating design features and environmental evaluation 
processes and incorporating new information and additional 
environmental analysis.

Alternatives Including the Preferred Alternative

    The BLM has analyzed six alternatives in detail, including the no 
action alternative. Each alternative makes available varying amounts of 
public lands for solar development applications. In descending order 
from the most available public lands for solar development application, 
Alternative 1 would make available approximately 55 million acres; the 
No Action Alternative would maintain the availability of approximately 
47 million acres; Alternative 2 would make available approximately 36 
million acres; Alternative 3 would make available

[[Page 3689]]

approximately 22 million acres; Alternative 4 would make available 
approximately 11 million acres; and Alternative 5 would make available 
approximately 8 million acres. The BLM considered six additional 
alternatives but did not carry those alternatives forward for detailed 
analysis for the reasons discussed in the Draft Programmatic EIS.
    A reasonably foreseeable development scenario (RFDS) was developed 
as part of the Draft Programmatic EIS to help define the potential 
magnitude of solar energy development that could occur within the 11-
State study area by 2045. Based on the RFDS, the estimated demand for 
solar energy generation on public lands by 2045 will be approximately 
93,000 megawatts, which would require making approximately 700,000 
acres of public land available for utility-scale solar development.
    The BLM has identified Alternative 3 as the preferred alternative 
in the Draft Programmatic EIS. Alternative 3 would make public lands 
within 10 miles of existing and planned transmission lines over 100 
kilovolts available for solar applications unless otherwise excluded 
based on the resource-based exclusion criteria identified in the EIS. 
Alternative 3 would improve the solar development application process 
by excluding solar energy development applications from areas where 
protection is warranted and providing development siting opportunities 
in specified ``solar application areas'' while maintaining sufficient 
siting flexibility to account for site-specific resource considerations 
on a case-by-case basis under subsequent project-specific decisions.

Mitigation

    Mitigation under the Programmatic EIS would generally take the form 
of avoidance and minimization. Avoidance would be achieved by excluding 
certain areas of public lands from solar energy development 
applications, depending on the alternative, based on defined criteria. 
Minimization would be achieved by requiring that various programmatic 
design features be incorporated into solar development proposals. 
Additional mitigation, including further avoidance, minimization, and 
compensation, may be required and incorporated into a solar development 
proposal at the project approval stage.

Schedule for the Decision-Making Process

    The BLM will provide this and additional opportunities for public 
participation consistent with NEPA and land use planning processes, 
including a 30-day public protest period and a 60-day Governor's 
consistency review on the Final Programmatic EIS and Proposed RMP 
Amendments. The Proposed RMP Amendments/Final Programmatic EIS is 
anticipated to be available for public protest in August 2024.
    The BLM will continue to consult with Indian Tribal Nations on a 
government-to-government basis in accordance with Executive Order 
13175, BLM MS 1780, and other Departmental policies. Tribal concerns, 
including impacts on Indian trust assets and potential impacts to 
cultural resources, will be given due consideration. Consultation will 
continue on an individual basis with interested Tribes.
    Comments on the Draft Programmatic EIS would be most helpful if 
provided at a level similar to that of master planning and zoning and 
with a focus on where solar development on public lands is most 
appropriate and where it should be disallowed and precluded from 
consideration. Comments about suggested design features that may be 
appropriate for the BLM to require are also encouraged.
    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2)

Benjamin E. Gruber,
Acting Assistant Director, Energy, Minerals, and Realty Management.
[FR Doc. 2024-00730 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-29-P