GILLETTE, Wyo. — A recently released and updated plan from the Bureau of Land Management would tap millions of additional acres of public lands for solar energy development, including lands in Wyoming.
At the end of August, the BLM announced its proposed roadmap for solar energy development on public lands, expanding the original 2012 Western Solar Plan for solar project permitting on public lands across the West.
The plan would make 31 million acres of public lands across 11 western states available for solar development by pulling five western states — Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming — into the solar energy fold, joining six others analyzed in the original plan, per the BLM.
The updated plan’s release comes on the heels of an August Short-Term Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration which proclaimed solar energy the fastest-growing electricity source in the United States…
