BLM Proposal to Make Federal Lands Accessible to Solar and Wind Energy

The rule proposed by the Bureau of Land Management, see here, under the Obama administration’s push for clean energy, is reportedly to be adopted in October 2016.  The rule establishes a competitive bidding process that would be in theory more streamlined than the current permitting process, offsets equal to up to 20% of the bid and certain incentives for solar and wind farms.  The solar and wind industries, though, reportedly think generally that the process still will take too long and that the variable leasing rates depending on location and timing will be a disincentive to investment.  Moreover, going to a competitive process may actually increase the cost to the winning bidder.