Citing an increased demand for more solar development on public lands, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has expanded its Western Solar Plan to include five additional states.
The proposed updated plan includes Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming in addition to the original six states covered by the agency’s 2012 plan: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. It opens more than 31 million acres of public land across 11 states for solar development and eliminates variance lands as a category.
The plan aims to streamline solar development on public lands by guiding projects to areas near transmission lines or previously disturbed lands, reducing conflicts with critical habitats and sensitive cultural resources. Solar applications would be permitted within 15 miles of existing or proposed transmission lines and on lands with up to a 10% slope. Projects must be 5 megawatts or larger and connect to the grid, with requirements to avoid, minimize and compensate for any adverse impacts. Environmental analysis is required before any BLM decision on proposed projects is made.
“The updated Western Solar Plan is a responsible, pragmatic strategy for developing solar energy on our nation’s public lands that supports national clean energy goals and long-term national energy security,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “It will drive responsible solar development to locations with fewer potential conflicts while helping the nation transition to a clean energy economy, furthering the BLM’s mission to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.”
The BLM outlined a reasonably foreseeable development scenario (RFDS) to estimate the land area and electricity-generating capacity required for potential utility-scale solar energy development in the 11-state planning area through 2045. Based on Department of Energy modeling, the environmental impact report found that 697,833 acres would be needed for solar development.
Josh Axelrod, a senior program advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said while the amount of acreage needed is less than 2% of the 31 million acres proposed, it allows BLM flexibility for siting and the potential to develop more than 136 gigawatts, or enough to power 100 million homes.
Axelrod continued BLM seeks to narrow available acreage to areas with strong development potential and fewer ecological or land-use conflicts. He said the final proposed plan introduces a set of updated “programmatic design features” to refine how projects are sited, built, operated, decommissioned and reclaimed, categorized into three groups: those applicable to all projects, those specific to certain resources and those evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
These design features are intended to help developers avoid environmental and cultural impacts, giving conservation groups the tools to collaborate with the BLM and solar companies to ensure low-conflict project sites, he said.
With the development comes the potential to eliminate grazing allotments. According to the report, areas developed for utility-scale solar energy production would likely exclude grazing activities, leading the BLM to reduce the acreage and authorized animal unit months associated with livestock grazing permits overlapping with solar projects.
Under the proposed plan, approximately 29.9 million acres of grazing allotments overlap with lands available for utility-scale solar applications, representing 90% of the total available lands. If development follows the projections outlined in the RFDS, it is expected to occur on roughly 2% of those 29.9 million acres. Solar energy development would directly impact only a small portion of the total grazing allotments, according to the agency. However, BLM said ongoing research is exploring ways to make solar energy facilities compatible with cattle grazing.
Reactions
Kaitlynn Glover, executive director at the Public Lands Council (PLC), expressed significant concern with the Western Solar Plan. Glover pointed out that grazing lands are essential for livestock and other land-use activities, and their inclusion in solar development zones threatens the multiple-use mandate.
“What we have seen with scale solar development over the last 10 or 12 years and since the BLM has met their goal of siting 25 gigawatts of solar by 2025 is you convert these landscapes from a potential multiple-use to a single-use environment,” Glover told WLJ. “You can’t have grazing, you can’t have recreation, you can’t have wildlife habitat.”
Additionally, she warned the plan could lead to increased calls for restrictive land designations, such as monuments or areas of critical environmental concern, which could further limit grazing and other land uses. Glover remains skeptical about the feasibility of agrivoltaics, particularly on public lands, citing the challenges of balancing large-scale solar installations with grazing activities.
“Agrivoltaics has been successful for private land, but I remain skeptical—a one-to-one comparison for cattle is just entirely unfeasible,” Glover said. “We looked at it and tried having conversations with folks trying to make it feasible to have cattle grazing, but it is a more challenging management scenario. I have a tough time believing it could be done on a utility scale on public lands.”
Glover emphasized PLC continues to advocate excluding grazing lands from the BLM’s solar development plans, successfully securing a rider in the House of Representative’s Department of Interior appropriations bill to block implementation. She anticipates a challenging funding discussion when Congress returns and doubts that anything new will be included in a continuing resolution beyond what was in previous funding bills.
“We’ll need to revisit fiscal year 2025 appropriations, likely after the election or mid-next year,” Glover said. “At that time, we’ll address all of our policy riders and important provisions, such as the prohibition of the BLM’s public lands rule, to ensure there’s no widespread change to federal lands.”
Environmental and outdoor groups expressed optimism and reservations regarding the plan, hoping the agency would consider the impact on wildlife.
“As the country grapples with the need to meet energy demands, it’s crucial to approach the development of solar energy with the perspective that wildlife and solar can coexist on the landscape,” said Joel Webster, interim chief conservation officer for Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). “TRCP appreciates refinements made by the BLM to the Western Solar Plan that will help maintain seasonal habitats that are crucially important for the West’s big game herds.”
Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed disappointment BLM is prioritizing energy development over wildlife and protected public lands. Spivak emphasized that while there is space for thoughtfully sited solar projects, this plan risks widespread habitat destruction by allowing industrial development across sensitive public lands in the West.
Ben Norris, vice president of regulatory affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association, said that while they are still reviewing the plan, it is a “step in the right direction.” However, Norris noted, “Fossil fuels have access to over 80 million acres of public land, 2.5 times the amount of public land available for solar.” — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
