UpdatedThu, Feb 18, 2021 at 9:35 am PT
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The highlighted area is part of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. (Data Basin)
COACHELLA VALLEY, CA Federal officials Wednesday announced that President Joe Biden s administration intends to halt an effort by his predecessor that would have opened up millions of acres in the Southern California desert to mining, energy development and broadband infrastructure, a move activists said would have been catastrophic to desert wildlife populations.
Just days before former President Donald Trump s departure from the White House, the Bureau of Land Management announced a series of proposed amendments to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. The framework, finalized in 2016, designated nearly 11 million acres of federal land for conservation and recreation across the Southern California desert.
In the dying days of the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management tried to stick one more knife in California’s back by unilaterally proposing sweeping changes to the 2016 Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a complicated and delicately-constructed compromise among an array of organizations with competing interests in developing or preserving 10.8 million acres of desert. President Biden needs to withdraw the proposal and preserve the equilibrium his predecessor sought to disrupt.
The plan was crafted to balance the need to provide space for renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, against the need to preserve delicate environments that are home to an array of flora and fauna, including endangered species such as the desert tortoise. In the tradition of compromise, after eight years of negotiations, proposals and counterproposals, at least a dozen public hearings and more than 16,000 public comments, all the affected parties got some of what they
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California The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental impact statement and plan amendment for the three plans that underlie the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). The public comment period will end on April 15, 2021.
The BLM is proposing targeted amendments to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan, the Bakersfield Resource Management Plan, and the Bishop Resource Management Plan. These amendments are intended to promote economic growth, support broadband infrastructure development, increase public access, and allow for greater management flexibility in order to meet our nation’s energy needs.