Posted on 08/30/2024 1:16:53 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
The Bureau of Land Management has published details of a plan to make millions of acres of public lands across the western U.S. available for development of solar power.
The Western Solar Plan, which revises guidelines from more than a decade ago, was published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2024. The BLM said the plan would make 31 million acres of public lands (that is 48,437 square miles!) available for potential solar energy development.
The new proposal seeks to bring solar projects to 11 states. The plan would place development closer to existing or planned power transmission lines, and also looks at siting projects near land that has been previously accessed.
The updated proposal published Friday adds five states—Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming—to an original six where land has been considered for development. The original states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
“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,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a statement.
Ben Norris, VP of regulatory affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association said, “The Bureau of Land Management opened 31 million acres of federal lands to renewable energy development, accepting many of SEIA’s recommendations to strike a better balance between its conservation and clean energy deployment goals. For over 12 years SEIA has advocated for leveling the playing field for renewables and increasing public land access for solar and storage development. While we’re still reviewing the details, we’re pleased to see that BLM listened to much of the solar industry’s feedback … fossil fuels have access to over 80 million acres of public land, 2.5 times the amount of public land available for solar.”
(Excerpt) Read more at powermag.com ...
Anyone can stop using oil products whenever they want to.
It’s all part of the cloward-piven (spit) attack on the Republic - they think they can slide something like this through under the guise of ‘green energy’ while further damaging the dollar and the economy.
Here is an aerial tour of the destroyed "solar farm" on X.
The pathetic "Fighting Jays Solar" web site doesn't even mention the disaster! All it says is the usual Green Rah Rah Boosterism bullshit while ignoring the reality of what a disaster it is:
PROUDLY BRINGING SOLAR POWER TO SOUTH TEXASA large-scale solar operation supplying jobs, much-needed revenues and electrical power to Fort Bend County and beyond.
Jobs. Revenues. Energy.
You are not well informed.
They are most assuredly NOT dealing with dust, dirt, snow, inability to recycle the panels, toxic waste from the disposed or damaged panels, damage to the soil underneath the panels, damage to the immediate microhabitats below the panels, shade killing native plants, problems with migratory mammalian species, high bird mortality (migrating waterfowl flying through the arid landscape mistake the installations for bodies of water and crash into them), to keep costs low most solar facilities replace the existing land cover with graded packed dirt, gravel, or mowed grass, further harming local biodiversity, and reflections causing disruption to bird navigation.
You are absolutely correct. These "solar farms" are going to be ecological catastrophes. These issues are not getting anywhere near the attention they deserve.
See my Post #24 for a list of the problems I'm aware of.
Oddly =’s 31 million acres....
It would be much harder to evaluate but what meteorological/climate effects would 48k sq. miles of solar panels have?
Shouldn’t that be studied before committing $100s of millions of dollars to something with the potential to cause an unparalleled disaster?
Stupid is as stupid does....
I worked at the power industry’s research institute for many years. A colleague of mine worked on that very question about 35 years ago, only he was curious about the reduction of air temperature caused by removing lots of energy from the atmosphere (wind turbines). He found that a massive deployment of wind turbines in western Europe would cause a measurable drop in air temperature in eastern Europe. I don’t recall his exact calculation, but I think it was between one and two degrees.
You are right that this needs to be studied for massive solar farms.
I need the US Weather Service to get their radar to ID hail coming.
I’ve had no shortage of hail damage to my series of p/u’s [that don’t easily fully fit into the garage with all of the cars] over the last 7 years.
[Cheyenne, Wyo, is apparently ~ 5x worse]
IT SUCKs.
Maybe Gorbal Warming will help?
I burn plenty of hydrocarbon fuel annually as a financial [thanks Brandon...] sacrifice to Ma Erf.
Bkmk green glow- yep
"Stroke of the pen, law of the land! Kinda neat, huh?"
Kinda a waste of TAX dollars. Sure my reps are all in here in NV. Not that any of them would benefit. 🤬
I am assuming that you live somewhere in the Midwest or Texas. The front range of the Rocky Mountains, where the Great Plains stop on a dime and the mountains just shoot up is full of violent weather and the pride swings. One of the lesser known weather benefit the Rockies had in Montana is the chinook winds which blow in from the west that, as they fall down to the prairie, the air compresses and warms dramatically. I remember quite a few 60° days during Christmas break in southeast Montana growing up thanks to the chinook winds.
Government either has no ideas or bad ideas.
That is some serious damage. I wonder if they were able to clean all of the broken glass from the ground.
You’re miles ahead of me in education and experience on the subject but my gut feeling is that solar panels would also have a cooling effect. Probably a lot more than wind turbines.
Massive amounts of land would be shaded and the panels would be reflecting a lot of solar radiation straight back up into the upper atmosphere.
Would that cooling be positive or negative? That’s where deep study would be needed. It also depends on one’s POV of what weather they prefer.
One thing seems certain to me without much study needed. All the land beneath those panels would essentially be dead land. It would be lousy with tumbleweeds and jackrabbits and not much else.
An oil pipeline blocks very little vegetaion.
This will allow the ecowackos to close millions of acres of BLM land to multiple use. The real goal of the vicious misanthropes.
Our daughter left her Ford Escape in an outdoor lot at the Denver Airport some years ago. Of course, a big hailstorm blew through. Smashed her windshield and nicely dimpled her roof, hood and one side of the car. The insurance company totaled the car. She took the pay-off check and is still driving the car today!
She’s very frugal and was able to buy a house two years ago when they got married.
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