October 23rd, 2008

From U.S. Department of the Interior

The Final Geothermal Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement would make more than 190 million acres of Federal land in 12 western states available for development of geothermal energy resources, an initiative that “could increase electric generation capacity from geothermal resources ten times over.”

The plan would produce 5,540 megawatts of new electric generation capacity from geothermal resources by 2015 — enough to power 5.5 million homes. The plan estimates an additional 6,600 megawatts by 2025 for a total of 12,100 megawatts – enough to power more than 12 million homes.

The plan identifies about 118 million acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands and 79 million acres of National Forest System lands for future geothermal leasing. It would provide a list of appropriate stipulations to be applied to leases and amend 122 Bureau of Land Management land use plans to allow for geothermal development.

Under Interior’s plan, future geothermal leasing will be subject to all existing laws, regulations and orders, as well as stipulations and terms and conditions. To protect special resource values, the plan identifies a comprehensive list of stipulations, conditions of approval and best management practices required for approval of future leases.

Lands withdrawn from or administratively closed to geothermal leasing will remain so. For example, lands within a unit of the National Park System, such as Yellowstone National Park, will continue to be unavailable for leasing. The PEIS also excludes wilderness areas and wilderness study areas from analysis. It will allow discretionary closure of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern where the BLM determines that this is appropriate. The BLM may also implement discretionary closures of units of the National Landscape Conservation System.

In addition to laying the foundation for environmental analysis of future geothermal leasing, the plan also provides site-specific environmental analysis of 19 pending geothermal lease applications in seven geographic locations. These leases were filed before Jan. 1, 2005 for specific lands in Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington managed by the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management. Decisions on the issuance of these 19 leases could proceed as soon as the Record of Decision is signed.

The governors of the 12 states in the plan’s project area will each have the opportunity to review the final document to ensure consistency with state plans, programs, and policies. The Bureau of Land Management will wait until the end of the Governor’s consistency review period before signing and issuing the Record of Decision approving the land use plan amendments. Any inconsistencies will be resolved before a Record of Decision is issued.

The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service will publish the final version of a plan in the Federal Register on Friday, Oct. 24, 2008. It will be available online.