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Written by Wild Nevada
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Tuesday, 23 October 2012 08:11 |
Our own Craig Mortimore (left) is quoted in Outside magazine's website on why a programmatic approach to renewable energy development on public lands was a "a win-win for conservation, public access and energy developers." The piece explores how NWP and similar groups' efforts to ensure renewable energy "is developed with minimal negative impacts on wildlife, recreation access and cultural resources" stemmed from the decades of damage oil and gas development wrought on public lands.
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Monday, 07 May 2012 13:55 |
 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Nevada today to flip the switch on Nevada’ original “fast-tracked,” utility-scale solar power project – a 50 megawatt photovoltaic plant in the Ivanpah Valley.
The Silver State North project, which will sell its generated juice to NV Energy, is the first of what Salazar hopes will be many renewable energy projects built on public land.
“Today is a landmark for America, a landmark for the solar industry and a landmark for how we use our public lands,” Salazar said in a speech dedicating the project. “We are making believers out of skeptics. A lot of people would have said three years ago that this day would never come.”
OK, so this is a big deal, at least symbolically. Salazar’s shelf of the Cabinet has approved 29 wind, solar and geothermal projects on public land since 2009. The Interior Department has also designated key Solar Energy Zones in the West that will help ensure future solar plants don’t threaten sensitive wildlife habitat or infringe on proposed or protected Wilderness and Conservation Areas. We call projects like that “smart from the start.”
In the case of Silver State North, we dubbed this 600-acre project 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas “smart” because the developer was willing to gather environmental input early on to avoid complications during the formal review process. From where we sat at the review table, that was a good sign.
Project developer Solar One Inc. agreed to deal with issues related to the desert tortoise. The desert tortoise is an ancient reptile that dwells in the creosote bush bottomlands of the Ivanpah Valley where this project was placed. With mitigation for desert tortoise during the construction phase, and with scientific monitoring of the tortoise population after construction, this site represents an opportunity to learn how well the desert tortoise can manage living in the vicinity of a utility-scale solar project.
The Silver State North project is owned by Enbridge Inc., Canada’s largest oil-pipeline company, and generates enough electricity for about 9,000 homes, according to a statement today. The next phase of solar development in the valley will be the construction of the much larger Silver State South Solar Project.
A supplemental EIS for the 13,043 acres of affected land is under development and is expected to be available for public review toward the end of 2012. Initial scoping meetings were held in September 2011 that prompted substantial changes by the developer to address desert tortoise movement connectivity – the spatial requirement necessary to assure that populations will not be cut off from one another – and to promote stability of the large alluvial bajada that flows out of the nearby Lucy Gray Mountains. This landscape feature is an important ecological feature of the Mojave Desert and typically harbors the richest biodiversity within the biome.
This EIS will address the much larger Silver State South Solar Project that expects to produce 350 megawatts of electricity, of which Southern California Edison has secured a 250-megawatt, long-term PPA. The developer has not yet committed its sale of the remaining 100 megawatts of capacity.
NWP will continue to be present as Silver State South Solar Project and additional renewable energy projects are contemplated in Nevada.
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Written by Jim Sloan
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Thursday, 13 October 2011 12:44 |
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 The Obama Administration wants to streamline the permit process for seven power transmission line projects, including one in Nevada.
The president’s goal is to boost the nation’s grid capacity but also create jobs. The projects are also supposed to make it easier to integrate renewable energy resources into the grid.
The new streamlined permitting system outlined last week by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would supposedly benefit the Transwest Express transmission line, a 700-mile, 600-kilovolt conduit running through Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. That project – designed to carry power from new wind farms in Wyoming – is supposed to create up to 1,500 jobs.
It’s hard to find a point of contention in proposals that support renewable energy and create jobs, so the Salazar announcement didn’t get much traction during this season of presidential politics. But as more details come out about the streamlining of transmission lines in the West, let’s hope that sufficient thought is given to the impact these projects have on wild lands and wildlife habitat in the Great Basin and beyond.
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Monday, 15 August 2011 10:24 |
 Recent litigation in California has focused attention on Native American rights and cultural resources. This spring the court granted the Quechan Tribe's motion for a preliminary injunction against the 6000+ acre Imperial Valley solar energy project on BLM land for failure to engage in adequate government-to-government consultation. Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the federal government is required to consult with native tribes about the possibility of sacred sites or locations that may be affected by a proposed project. Although separate from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that most of us are familiar with, the NHPA is part of the environmental review process required by NEPA. Although, consultation should be initiated before the scoping phase of NEPA, it is often not until later. Also, Section 106 archaeological inventories and ethnographic research should be completed early in order to complete adequate consultation. Without information about potential impacts to cultural resources in the proposed project area, consultation is incomplete and ineffective.
Along with the above described events, the US Department of the Interior hosted the Onshore Renewable Energy Stakeholders Workshop in Washington DC in February. The Nevada Wilderness Project participated along with many other important stakeholders including tribal, solar industry, and conservation community representatives as well as an array of federal agency personnel. This meeting and others this spring, focused on ramping up a Smart from the Start approach which has been generally been adopted by the federal government, at least in principal. This methodology initiated by NWP in 2008 and subsequently refined includes principals such as early engagement with interested parties in order to ensure appropriate sitting of renewable projects and projects that include some kind of conservation mitigation included. These public lands where these projects are built, are our lands. We believe that we all should benefit from these projects well beyond those immediate benefits of clean energy. Habitat mitigation and natural resource research is a way that our public resources might benefit from this Smart from the Start approach.
Many of you all that read this blog regularly will remember NWP reviewed and provided comments on the 11,000 page Solar Draft PEIS. Not only did we provide input on the seven proposed solar zones in Nevada, but we also provided text recommending “Best Management Practices” (BMPs) for NHPA’s Section 106 and Native American consultation. These BMPs were included in national policy level response comments co-signed by many national environmental groups.
NWP also believes that, although not directly conservation oriented, engaging other interested parties, is Smart. With this in mind, Greg Seymour, Renewable Energy Coordinator, was asked to be a guest speaker at the Valuing Historic Perspectives- Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in Tucson a couple of weeks ago. The name of the session was “Renewable Energy Meets Non-Renewable Resources: Managing Cultural Resource Issues .” Other organizations represented included the Bureau of Land Management, Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, Western Area Power Administration, Hualapai Tribe, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and the Argonne National Laboratory.
Topics covered included challenges for cultural resource management and compliance with NEPA and Section 106 of the NHPA. We explored issues relating to planning and siting of industrial-scale power facilities, the restoration and reuse of disturbed lands for energy development, the associated impacts on cultural resources, and ways to identify, avoid, address, and mitigate impacts while complying with federal statutes. Impacts on cultural and historical landscapes as well as places of traditional cultural importance to Indian tribes were discussed.
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Thursday, 16 June 2011 13:39 |
We have some good news to report. Assembly Bill 307, sponsored by Nevada Assemblyman David Bobzien, was signed into law July 15, 2011 by Governor Brian Sandoval. This new law is the most significant piece of conservation legislation to come out of the Assembly's latest session, and it is an accomplishment in the Nevada Wilderness Project's quest for a "smart from the start" approach to renewable energy development. In fact, we're pretty confident we can call this the first piece of "smart from the start" legislation passed in the West. So what does it do?
The new law allows the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) to recover costs incurred for the agency’s timely review of proposed energy projects’ impacts to wildlife and habitat. Developers proposing energy projects will pay, as “cost-recovery,” for the state agency’s review of environmental impacts. Prior to this legislation, NDOW was responsible for reviewing an ever-growing list of energy development permit applications at the expense of the agency’s general budget, primarily derived from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and associated federal matching funds. With development of renewable energy in particular being a priority for Nevada, the agency was being overrun with applications--and overrun with trying to pay for them all.
"By setting up a system of cost recovery, we ensure timely review for projects and allow for the money currently being spent on plan review to be better utilized enhancing habitat for species of critical concern. It’s a win for energy developers and a win for Nevada’s wildlife,” said Kyle Davis, Nevada Conservation League (NCL). Kyle worked tirelessly to iron out and gain broad support for the bill--some of which we wrote about in an earlier post about AB307.
The Nevada Wilderness Project pioneered a “smart from the start” approach to developing sound renewable energy projects and accomplishing habitat conservation at the same time. Many other habitat conservation groups throughout the West also embrace a similar approach, including NCL, The Wilderness Society, Western Environmental Law Center, Defenders of Wildlife and others. Much of the demand for energy development is on public lands in Nevada. Federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rely on the expertise of NDOW to appropriately site and plan mitigation for wildlife resources on these lands.
"Wildlife will suffer a so-called ‘death by a thousand cuts’ if the impacts of energy development projects are not adequately evaluated, both for their site-specific as well as their landscape-level impacts," said John Tull, Conservation Director for the Nevada Wilderness Project. "By providing a cost-recovery stream for the thorough and early review of all energy projects in the state, the BLM will be able to make better decisions about which projects are appropriate and which projects simply should not be allowed when it comes to wildlife conservation.”
The conservation community will be challenged to remain optimistic about Congress's ability to pass much conservation, habitat protection or sound renewable energy policy legislation this year. This Nevada Assembly bill is a sweet spot--and offers hope that states can also lead and make positive contributions toward a "smart from the start" transition to renewable energy.
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Thursday, 05 May 2011 12:54 |
 The answer is, "we'll see." Over the last several weeks, the Nevada Wilderness Project (NWP) and the Nevada Conservation League have been working with assembly members in the Nevada State Legislature in support of several bills that are conservation-oriented.
One in particular, AB 307, is an especially even-handed bill that we have worked hard to advance. AB 307 will create a fee to be paid by energy companies that propose new renewable energy projects on public land in Nevada. The fee eventually will be utilized by the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) to evaluate the sites where new projects are proposed, and to provide information to the energy companies relative to wildlife occurrence and distribution, and to mitigate, where possible, the impacts to wildlife and wildlife habitat that may result from the siting of these projects. This is in keeping with NWP’s “smart from the start” approach to renewable energy development.
AB 307 is one of the “priority” bills being pursued in this legislative session by the Nevada Conservation League. NWP is a member of the Nevada Conservation League, a lobbying organization that supports environmental issues at the state level. Kyle Davis is the chief lobbyist for that organization, and he very ably monitors legislation as well as being the lead in supporting priority legislation for organizations that are League members.
Nevada Wilderness Project staff members have provided support for this bill in the form of testimony and coordination with other organizations and agencies as well as working with legislators to get this “priority” bill written and passed in the current session. Currently, however, it appears we are caught in the Governor's crossfire on his "no new taxes" pledge. Governor Brian Sandoval has decided to treat any bill with a fee as a tax.
Despite many solar companies supporting the fee idea and the industry's understanding that NDOW needs help to properly and promptly engage on renewable energy projects and associated transmission development, Governor Sandoval will almost certainly veto this important piece of legislation if it passes. Industry, conservation and assembly supporters are re-grouping and will attempt to craft the bill so that at the very least, the Nevada Department of Wildlife will be able to recover from developers the costs associated with evaluating these proposed project sites and their impacts to habitat and wildlife. This does not address NDOW’s staffing issues or capacity for this type of work (as the “fee structure” version would have), but it does improve the bill's chances for getting the Governor's signature.
We will keep you posted on this bill's progress.
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Tuesday, 26 October 2010 13:29 |
Last week saw a small flurry of activity around some of the BLM’s “fast-track” renewable energy development projects—those proposals for building solar, wind and geothermal facilities on public land that were identified last year as high priority places to permit and move from “shovel ready” to actual construction by the end of 2010.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Nevada and California to sign Records of Decision (RODs)—which gives each project the final go-ahead—for a handful in California and so far, three in Nevada: New York Canyon (geothermal), Silver State (solar) and Spring Valley (wind). We expect to see him sign an ROD for the Amargosa solar project soon, and perhaps the Crescent Dunes solar project.
In the context of evaluating these projects through the lens of our “smart from the start” process, the Silver State Project and the Spring Valley wind project offer two ends of the spectrum. One is smart from the start, and the other is nothing short of dumb from the get-go.
The Silver State 60 MW solar project is one that the Nevada Wilderness Project supports. It is an important step forward in bringing much-needed solar renewable energy to reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil and to combat global climate change. We see Silver State as a well-located project because it is near existing transmission. It uses photovoltaic technology with no water-cooling requirements, and it is in a valley with extensive, planned development that has degraded habitats from heavy use by off-highway vehicles.
In stark contrast, the Spring Valley wind project in eastern Nevada is an example of BLM and developer planning at its worst. The Spring Valley project lies in important habitat for raptors, bats, and the imperiled sage grouse. Cultural resources on the site will suffer. And finally, this massive wind farm will dominate the northern viewshed of Nevada’s only national park, Great Basin National Park. The BLM and the developer have demonstrated a tin ear to environmental and cultural concerns to the extent that it will not be difficult to muster legitimate and vigorous opposition to this poorly planned project.
These two projects are instructive for both developers and the agencies. When developers and agencies work in earnest to address stakeholders' concerns and site projects near existing transmission and in previously disturbed habitats, support from the conservation community is forthcoming. Ignore stakeholder concerns and neglect a thorough review of cultural and environmental impacts, and project developers and the permitting agencies will get the gridlock of opposition they deserve.
Most of the so-called "fast-track" projects put conservationists in the difficult position of having to weigh in and evaluate them well after proposals were concieved solely by developers on lands deemed appropriate solely by the BLM--with no comprehensive planning nor holistic approach to measuring the cumulative impacts of these developments on large landscapes. With the next wave of renewable energy development, the Nevada Wilderness Project will be doing everything in our power to proactiviely identify appropriate places for development, identify and campaign for connected landscapes and special places apppropriate for legislative or adminisitrative protrection, and do both of these things at the same time.
Nevada Solar One facility, just outside Boulder City, Nevada. Photo by C. Overby
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Tuesday, 19 October 2010 09:48 |
 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Reno, NV last night to talk with approximately 40 conservation-minded people from northern Nevada. He was stumping for Harry Reid’s re-election campaign, too, and came to speak at Patagonia’s North American Distribution Center located on the west side of town.
Sec. Salazar talked about the America’s Great Outdoors initiative, the Interior Department’s commitment to Native Americans and the 564 reservations in the U.S., the department’s focus on young people and a 21st Century Conservation Corps, and Harry Reid – how Reid has been a mentor to him, both when Salazar was a Colorado Senator as well as now, serving as Obama’s Interior Secretary.
He also told us that he gave up his Senate seat to take the Interior job because of “my interest in the new energy frontier and because of conservation.”
Then came the home run:
He told the crowd that “we need to be ‘smart from the start’” when it comes to renewable energy development on our public lands and make sure projects are sited well, and have strong mitigation or a conservation component to them.
A “smart from the start” approach to developing renewable energy on our public lands has been something we’ve been formulating since late 2008 – and have recently experienced success with. (See our page about the introduction of new solar royalty legislation and our blog about re-routing a transmission line in eastern Nevada to avoid sage grouse breeding grounds).
For NWP, the phrase “smart from the start” has been a catchy way of “branding” a serious approach to a complex energy transition – and we are happy to hear the Secretary use it in person as well as see it in news releases from the Interior Department. It is also an approach we will continue to refine, explain, and flex as renewable energy development unfolds on Nevada’s public lands.
Today, Salazar is heading down to Vegas for a ceremony marking the start of construction on the SWIP transmission line - that "smart from the start" project we explored through Adam Bradley's incredible hike of the whole thing. It's also called the ONline project, and Sen Reid will be joining him.
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Friday, 17 September 2010 08:21 |
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It was refreshing to come by some good news from the scientific community on the subject of global climate change this past week. Researchers at the Carnegie Institution and Concordia University published a paper in a recent issue of Science that asked the question, what will happen to the planet if we stop building carbon dioxide emitting devices today and allow existing devices to phase out over their expected operational lifetimes? Types of devices considered include coal, oil and gas-fired power plants, gas-powered automobiles, trucks and more.
Answering this question will help us know if we have a fighting chance to save the planet from the worst-case scenario that will occur from continued increases in carbon dioxide emissions. In simple terms, is advocating for a “smart from the start” transition from existing to renewable forms of energy a good use of our time?
The good news is that they conclude that we should be able to secure the future of our planet if we stop building new carbon polluting devices today. So, yes, we are making good use of our time. The bad news is that social and political inertia continues to push the creation of more and more of these pollution inputs. In other words, we are not regulating carbon dioxide pollution in a way that accounts for the real costs and consequences of doing business as usual. All of this means that NWP, and other conservation groups that are trying to foster our transition to renewable energy, are on the right track, but we need to continue to push the public understanding of this issue and immediate requirement for a serious political response to global climate change.
NWP is acting to make this transition happen as rapidly as possible in Nevada, but in ways that we protect our most important landscapes, wildlife and their habitats. We have been supporting several pieces of federal legislation that would provide new, dependable wildlife habitat conservation and restoration funding. We have worked with developers and our congressional delegation to avoid impacting important sage-grouse habitat with a transmission corridor realignment. We have added a Renewable Energy Program Coordinator to more effectively engage with agencies and their staff, project proponents, and strategic partners.
All of these things improve NWP’s effectiveness in bringing conservation to Nevada, and they will help Nevada get renewable energy projects on the ground to help combat the global climate change threat that is very serious and in need of immediate solutions.
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Written by Wild Nevada
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Friday, 30 July 2010 13:37 |
For the last several months, a lot of the work and thinking here at the Nevada Wilderness Project has, in one way or another, been about renewable energy development on our public lands—and how to support the right kinds of projects, in the right places, and with a tangible, positive outcome for habitat conservation. You know… that “smart from the start” approach we’ve been talking about since the first of the year. In conjunction with advocating for wilderness and national conservation area designations for Gold Butte, this has made for a busy year so far.
We have some good news to report:
The Nevada Wilderness Project (NWP) was involved in a cooperative effort to re-align portions of the 500-mile Southwest Intertie Project (SWIP) in eastern Nevada that will help protect key sage grouse habitat near the line. NWP, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) and LS Power (the SWIP line developer) worked together to re-route three sections of the line in Elko County to better avoid important breeding grounds, called leks, for the sensitive bird species. The re-alignment, which will be paid for by the developers and not taxpayers, was attached as an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill and approved by Congress just last week.
Why this was worthwhile:
The section of SWIP line running north-south between Oasis, along Interstate 80, and the Idaho-Nevada state line, has approximately 30 of these special habitat areas for sage grouse. Past research has shown that overhead lines that are too close to leks, or breeding areas, contribute to increased amounts of predation, principally by raptors and ravens. Moving the line away from leks reduces perching and nesting opportunities for these predators.
With the new re-alignment, some areas with high concentrations of sage grouse leks will also be kept intact—not split up by the line and associated development—thereby reducing fragmentation of these key breeding grounds. Fragmenting areas that sage grouse and other wildlife depend on leads to population declines or die-offs. This area has already seen challenges that do not bode well for sage grouse, including the effects of wildfire that has resulted in the loss of vast acreages of the ever-so-important sagebrush habitat that sage grouse require.
 How it began:
The realignment comes on the heels of NWP’s “SWIP Trip,” – last spring’s 501-mile hike of the line’s entire proposed route by nationally known long-distance hiker Adam Bradley. You may recall that the SWIP Trip was designed to get us out from behind our desks and away from the reams of paper that have already been produced in review of the SWIP project. We wanted to gather a different kind of ground-level intel that could help us grapple with what are called "cumulative effects"--the impacts of many different projects on the landscape.
These energy, agricultural, residential, biological and other projects or events may seem benign on their own, but when taken together over time, their cumulative effect on the landscape and habitat values can be devastating. We noted the intersection of two huge energy projects, the SWIP line and the Ruby Pipeline, as primary examples of events that can change habitats forever.
NWP staff traveled with Adam Bradley, meeting up with him at key spots along the SWIP, and serving as his “chase crew.” The result was a media and blog event to help educate the public about the SWIP line, cumulative effects, and the intersection between renewable energy development and habitat protection.
How the re-alignment got done:
Due to a permitting process by the BLM that only allows a review of a three-mile wide corridor, Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) biologists were constrained in what recommendations they could make to adjust the line and therefore improve its path for the benefit of the sage grouse. That's where our SWIP trip and NWP biologists entered the picture.
Conservation Director John Tull and Staff Biologist Gregg Tanner put their heads together on a better route, vetted it with key NDOW biologists and then pitched it to LS Power. The message: it will cost you more in the short run, but making these changes would be a big deal and improve the habitat and quality of the route. LS Power employees showed openness and creativity in working with us on the reroute. They demonstrated a real commitment to not just getting the line built, but in improving it in every way possible.
Why we think it’s an important accomplishment:
As an advocate with a PhD in Conservation Biology, John Tull understands how fragmented landscapes can destroy biodiversity. But he also recognizes NWP's responsibility to act once we've gathered the data and identified an opportunity.
“We recognize this reroute doesn’t solve the myriad of problems facing sage grouse. But this agreement with the developers sets the right course and shows that we can forge a path for renewable energy development that both developers and conservationists agree on.”
Gregg Tanner, NWP’s “rural circuit rider” as we like to call him, retired in 2005 after 32 years as a biologist and bureau chief with NDOW. He said he can't recall an energy company as responsive as LS Power, and said it bodes well for the future.
"Nevada's wildlife and habitats are under enormous pressure from energy development," said Tanner. "We hope this action will demonstrate to sportsmen and energy companies alike that Nevada's clean energy economy can be "smart from the start," if we work together."
Charlotte Overby, NWP's Communications Director, said this is a fantastic first outcome from the spring SWIP Trip. "When we set off on that 500-mile hike on Earth Day, our goal was to gather photographic and video assets that would help tell the public a story of a transmission line from different perspectives," she added. "We're seeing fruits from this effort that inform our work, and we’re confident will help result in better habitat protections over the next decade.”
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