DOI Announces Updated Western Solar Plan

On January 17, 2024, DOI announced an update of BLM’s 2012 Western Solar Plan roadmap, which identified areas in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah with high solar potential and low resource conflicts to guide solar development. The Utility-Scale Solar Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (“updated Western Solar Plan”) refines the analysis in the original six states and expands it to include Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. BLM utilized $4.3 million in IRA funding to invest in updates to the Western Solar Plan, including improving the solar development application process with increased predictability and maintaining sufficient flexibility to address site-specific resource considerations. Public input will inform a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision. The public can submit written comments until April 18, 2024.