The BLM has revised 114 of its resource management plans to encourage the construction of new geothermal power plants in the West, such as this 10-megawatt power plant that was recently built in Utah. Enlarge this image.
Credit: Raser Technologies, Inc.
January 07, 2009
The U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has made official its plans to open more than 190 million acres of federal lands for leasing and potential development of geothermal energy resources. On December 18, the BLM published the "Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments for Geothermal Leasing in the Western United States." The publication followed the release of the Final Geothermal Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), which the Interior Department published in October 2008. That PEIS was open to a 60-day review by the governors of the affected states, but none of the governors objected to the proposed plan amendments. The newly issued Record of Decision amends 114 BLM resource management plans and allocates about 111 million acres of BLM-managed public lands as open for leasing. An additional 79 million acres of National Forest System lands are also legally open for leasing, although the U.S. Forest Service will need to evaluate its land use plans and amend them as needed through a separate environmental review process. The Record of Decision was published in the Federal Register on December 30.
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