SOLAR: BLM rejects variance for large Calif. project to protect desert habitat
Scott Streater, E&E reporter
Greenwire: Friday, November 21, 2014
The Bureau of Land Management has rejected a Spanish company's application for a variance that would allow it to build a commercial-scale solar power plant in the Southern California desert, concluding the project would negatively affect an undisturbed desert valley in ways that could not be properly mitigated.
At issue is Iberdrola Renewables LLC's 200-megawatt Silurian Valley photovoltaic solar project, proposed to be built on more than 1,600 acres of BLM land in San Bernardino County near Death Valley National Park, about 10 miles north of Baker.
An Iberdrola Renewables' subsidiary had applied for a right of way to build in an area outside the boundaries of California's two solar energy zones (SEZs) that were established in the Western Solar Energy Plan finalized in 2012 as suitable for industrial-scale solar development. The Silurian Valley project site, however, is in a variance area identified in the Western Solar Energy Plan as potentially suitable for utility scale solar development but requiring more information and analysis before BLM can move forward with a lengthy environmental impact statement to analyze the project.
BLM State Office Director Jim Kenna late yesterday decided that the project site was not suitable for commercial-scale solar development after the initial review and analysis of the Iberdrola Renewables' project "indicated that the impacts to the Silurian Valley, a largely undisturbed valley that supports wildlife, an important piece of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, and recreational and scenic values," were too great, the agency said in a statement, and "likely could not be mitigated."
The Silurian Valley project is the first variance application to reach the decision stage.
"Based on information collected through the variance evaluation process, the BLM has determined that the Silurian Valley solar project was not in the public interest because of its potential impacts to important biological, cultural, recreational and scenic values," Kenna said in a statement. "This decision was made based on a rigorous review of the specific set of facts related to a particular place and a particular project."
Iberdrola Renewables has 30 days to file an administrative appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals, said Dana Wilson, a BLM spokeswoman in Sacramento, Calif.
Iberdrola released a statement indicating it is considering an appeal but has not made a final decision yet on what to do next.
"The BLM, in taking this pre-decisional action, has clearly not taken into account the vast amount of site-specific information that we have submitted over multiple years of prudent development," the company's statement read. "It is unfortunate that the Variance process is enabling unsubstantiated discretion in advance of a proper National Environmental Policy Act review that should be based on clear and predictable requirements."
But Kenna's decision was greeted with enthusiasm by conservation groups who said it demonstrates that the Obama administration is serious about properly siting large-scale projects to avoid natural resource conflicts, despite the administration's stated goal of using federal lands to increase green energy production.
"We're very pleased," said Kim Delfino, the California program director for Defenders of Wildlife in Sacramento. "We're really happy that BLM adhered to the criteria they laid out for projects that could move forward in these variance areas.
"I think it really shows the fact that the BLM has put together a good system and that they are applying it with integrity," she added. "Certainly for the environmental community it builds confidence in the process."
The Obama administration since 2009 has approved 52 solar, wind and geothermal power plants on federal land, including 18 in California alone. If all are built, they will have the capacity to produce up to 14,000 MW of electricity -- enough to power 4.8 million homes and businesses.
President Obama's Climate Action Plan unveiled last year challenges the Interior Department to approve an additional 10,000 MW of renewable energy on federal lands by 2020.
While the Silurian Valley project would have helped Interior move closer to that goal, the valley is not the proper site for a commercial-scale solar power plant, Delfino and others said.
"The Silurian Valley is encircled by and connects together remarkable conservation lands critical for wildlife and cultural resources," said David Lamfrom, associate director of the National Parks Conservation Association's California desert program in Barstow, Calif.
"The valley is at the doorstep to Death Valley National Park, retains a pristine segment of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail and connects to Mojave National Preserve," Lamfrom added. "The Silurian Valley is a well-traveled area; both by national park visitors as well as iconic desert species, including desert kit foxes, burrowing owls, bighorn sheep and golden eagles."
Lamfrom said BLM's decision to deny the variance request "is a powerful step forward for the BLM and its stated landscape-level approach to conservation and guided energy development."
