BLM to hold Colorado hearing on western solar plan

SUMMIT COUNTY —Colorado residents will get one more chance to offer input on a plan that could potentially open more than 111,000 acres of public lands in Colorado for industrial solar development.In response to strong public outcry, the Bureau of Land Management recently reversed its decision not to hold a Colorado public hearing on a supplemental environmental study to the Draft Solar Programatic Environmental Impact Statement in Colorado. The meeting is set for Jan. 11, 2012 at the Inn of the Rio Grande in Alamosa (7 p.m.)
In November and December, 2011, BLM held public hearings in Las Vegas, El Centro, CA, and Palm Desert but no Colorado hearing was scheduled.

Numerous citizens appealed to the BLM on the grounds that Colorado was not being treated fairly under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Nearly all the Colorado lands eyed for solar development are in the rural, high-altitude San Luis Valley, including over 16,000 acres in 4 Solar Energy Zones. The San Luis Valley is home to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who oversees the BLM’s increasingly controversial solar development proposal on public lands.

The supplemental study addresses impacts for large-scale industrial solar development that will have significant impacts on a broad range of individuals, communities and environments. The plan will affect areas in the San Luis Valley subject to industrial solar development.

Critics say the proposal also impacts ratepayers and taxpayers who could be deprived of the benefits of locally produced solar energy development as a result of the disproportionate allocation of scarce public resources for remote, centralized solar power plants on public lands.

“We are pleased that BLM listened to that people and reversed its position”, said Ceal Smith, founder of the grassroots, San Luis Valley Renewable Communities Alliance. “Interest in the San Luis Valley is very high and now Coloradans will have the same chance as citizens in California, Nevada and Arizona to express their concerns about the proposed large-scale privatization of public lands for industrial energy development,” Smith said.

“A lot more is known now about impacts and less destructive and costly point of use alternatives for solar development. It’s important that the BLM give full consideration to this new information,” she added.

More than 100 citizens attended the March 7th, 2011 public scoping hearing on the Draft PEIS in Alamosa, CO. Participants included adjacent landowners, ranchers and farmers, local government officials, student and community environmental groups, solar installers and business representatives, global climate change and clean energy advocates and professionals, including 24 individuals who came prepared to speak.

The Alamosa meeting drew more attendance than any of the other public hearings held throughout the country, with the possible exception of the Feb. 8th Indian Wells hearing in California.

The Supplement to the PEIS and other related documents can be downloaded here: http://solareis.anl.gov/documents/supp/index.cfm

The deadline for public comment on the Supplement to the Draft Solar PEIS is January 23, 2012.