BLM plan for industrial solar looks like a public land taking for private enterprise

Here in Santa Fe County residents are balking at a solar farm on private property in Rancho Viejo that could provide power for some 30,000 homes arguing that lithium ion batteries are prone to thermal runaway fires, that construction would disturb habitat for burrowing owls and require nearly 50 million gallons of water.

In my home state of South Dakota, Walworth County residents are voicing similar concerns but McCook County officials have approved a permit for a large array on 735 acres capable of producing some 99 megawatts despite opponents' claims for life safety concerns, damage to property and land value reductions but according to an industry watchdog South Dakota ranks last in solar capacity.

In the Northwest the US Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment on the construction of utility-scale photovoltaic generation on public lands in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

In addition to a status quo (“no-action”) option, the plan outlines five frameworks for permitting the kind of large-scale solar energy development that’s been in play across southwestern states including New Mexico and Nevada for more than a decade. The agency’s preferred alternative, Alternative 3, prioritizes proximity to transmission infrastructure, an acknowledgment that even expanded permitting of new energy projects can’t meet market demand without power lines to move electricity to where it’s needed. If the BLM selects Alternative 3 as drafted, approximately 210,000 acres of the more than 8 million acres of BLM-managed land in Montana could become available for solar developments. [BLM unveils plan for utility-scale solar development in western states]

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy screws customers in Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and New Mexico but the company gives twice as much campaign dough to Earth haters than to Democrats. Boulder, Colorado voted to keep Xcel in 2020 but in light of findings in the causes of the Marshall Fire in Boulder County seven lawsuits have been combined as a class action and filed against Earth hater Xcel in Colorado courts. 

Now, Colorado residents have had it with the monopoly that furnishes the city's power and burns fossil fuels to generate 58% of the state's electricity. In Colorado regulators are sending a clear signal to Xcel and Black Hills Energy to help subscribers transition to rooftop solar especially when microgrids are far more acceptable to rural communities.

Plans for a 771 mW photovoltaic farm that could electrify every domicile in Wyoming are being hardened for a site near the state’s border with Colorado.

Developers are nearing completion of a 400 megawatt solar system with battery storage in Sandoval County, New Mexico and capable of powering up to 150,000 PNM subscribers is scheduled to come online in June. Glare from the modules is quite visible from La Bajada Hill on I-25 nearly fifty miles distant.

Subsidized corporate greenwashing for a CO2 pipeline through private property is ripping the South Dakota Republican Party apart but the BLM taking public lands to enrich the shareholders of private utilities is every bit as offensive.

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