Energy Zones a Key to New Initiative
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Citing the critical need to
reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, build
a clean energy economy and create new jobs, Secretary
of the Interior Ken Salazar today issued a secretarial
order making the production, development, and delivery
of renewable energy top priorities for the department.
"More so than ever, with job losses continuing
to mount, we need to steer the country onto a new
energy path," Salazar said. "One that creates new
jobs and puts America out front in new, growing
industries, one that promotes investment and innovation
here at home and one that makes wise use of our
domestic resources."
In addition to making renewable energy production
a top priority for the department, Salazar's secretarial
order establishes an energy and climate change task
force that will spur this agenda and identify specific
zones on U.S. public lands where Interior can facilitate
a rapid and responsible move to large-scale production
of solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass energy.
For these renewable energy zones to succeed, Salazar
pointed out, Interior will need to work closely
with other federal agencies, states and American
Indian tribes to determine what electric transmission
infrastructure and transmission corridors are needed
to deliver these renewable resources to major population
centers.
"We will assign a high priority to identifying
renewable energy zones and completing the permitting
and appropriate environmental review of transmission
rights-of-way applications that are necessary to
deliver renewable energy generation to consumers,"
Salazar said. "We have to connect the sun of the
deserts and the wind of the plains with the places
where people live."
Interior manages one fifth of the country's landmass,
over 1.7 billion offshore acres, and lands with
some of the highest renewable energy potential in
the nation. Interior's Bureau of Land Management
has identified about 21 million acres of public
land with wind energy potential in the 11 western
states and about 29 million acres with solar energy
potential in the six southwestern states. There
are also 140 million acres of public land in western
states and Alaska that have geothermal resource
potential.
In addition, there is significant wind and wave
energy potential offshore. The National Renewable
Energy Lab has identified more than 1,000 gigawatts
of wind potential off the Atlantic coast, and more
than 900 gigawatts of wind potential off our Pacific
Coast.
The task force will prioritize the permitting and
appropriate environmental review of transmission
rights-of-way applications that are necessary to
deliver renewable energy generation to consumers.
The task force will work to resolve obstacles to
renewable energy permitting, siting, development,
and production.
To help accomplish these goals, Interior may need
to revise existing policies or create new policies,
Salazar said, citing as examples the geothermal,
wind, and West-wide corridors programmatic environmental
impact statements and their respective records of
decision. Interior will also finalize a regulation
for offshore renewable development.
Salazar explained that the Department of the Interior
will continue to responsibly develop oil and gas
resources on public lands. "In the last six weeks
we have had five major oil and gas lease sales onshore,
netting more than $32 million in revenue for taxpayers.
And next week, I will be travelling to New Orleans
to participate in a lease sale for the central Gulf
of Mexico. These will add important resources to
our domestic energy production."
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