Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Senator Harry Reid announce plans to fast-track commercial-scale solar power development on public lands.

In a plan announced on Tuesday, federal agencies will work with western leaders to designate tracts of U.S. public lands in the West as prime zones for utility-scale solar energy development; fund environmental studies; open new solar energy permitting offices, and; speed reviews of industry proposals.

Under the zoning portion of the initiative, 24 tracts of Bureau of Land Management land located in six western states, known as Solar Energy Study Areas, would be evaluated for their environmental and resource suitability for commercial-scale solar energy production. Those areas selected would be available for projects capable of producing 10 or more megawatts of electricity. The Solar Energy Study Areas (maps) located in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah encompass about 670,000 acres.

Speaking alongside Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Secretary Salazar vowed to have 13 “commercial-scale” solar projects under construction by the end of 2010. He set a goal of producing a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity.

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The court has ordered the Interior Department, now run by Ken Salazar, to conduct a proper analysis of environmental impacts and risks before moving ahead with any plans for offshore drilling in these sensitive areas. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are home to approximately one-tenth of the world’s total polar bear population, along with walruses, seals, and whales.

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The U.S. Department of the Interior reports that they will start spending the stimulus money granted them in February, and among the $140 million-worth of projects is $15.2 million for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s favorite activity: volcano monitoring!

This has been covered before, but it’s too good to let go easily. The complete disregard for actual science shown was thrown back in Jinda’s face immediately, but the volcano gods joined in only a month later when Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt erupted. Residents of the area had been warned two months earlier than eruption was pending, and perhaps as a result there were no major incidents when the volcano finally blew. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the Alaska Volcano Observatory’s “top priority is to prevent repetition of the incident that occurred during Redoubt’s eruption 19 years ago, when a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft strayed into an ash cloud and nearly crashed.” Eh, who needs monitoring, right?

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Freudenthal says replacing coal with wind “Ain’t going to happen”

In response to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s recent comments that the offshore wind energy resource in the United States could potentially provide 25% of our electricity and replace the need for coal-fired power generation, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal balked, telling reporters: “Ain’t going to happen.”

At an impromptu press conference in Cheyenne on Wednesday, Freudenthal said Salazar’s comments were a “dumb thing to say,” and said he hoped Salazar would learn the wisdom of “not making gratuitous statements.”

Wyoming is the biggest coal-producing state in the U.S., producing more than 450 million tons of coal in 2007, or nearly 40 percent of the country’s coal.

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Atlantic wind farms alone could meet 25% of US electricity needs

According to a new report released by the Interior Department, shallow-water offshore wind farms could supply as much as 20% of the electricity in most coastal states. The report, released last week by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said that the greatest offshore wind energy potential in the U.S. lies off the Atlantic Coast which holds 1,000 gigawatts of electricity, or one quarter of national demand.

“More than three-fourths of the nation’s electricity demand comes from coastal states and the wind potential off the coasts of the lower 48 states actually exceeds our entire U.S. electricity demand,” Salazar told a summit meeting of 25X’25 America’s Energy Future, a group working to lower America’s carbon emissions.

From Maine to Florida, state and local officials have been drafting plans and regulatory structures for offshore wind farm siting and permitting.

States have regulatory jurisdiction within three miles of their coast, beyond that boundary, the federal government has jurisdiction. And the federal waters between North Carolina and Delaware hold 71 percent of the nation’s shallow-water wind resources, the Interior report says.

In North Carolina, where the shallow waters and high winds in and around the Outer Banks are legendary, state legislators and some coastal counties are already preparing standards for where to allow wind farms. The state’s sounds, inside the Outer Banks, could be likely targets.

“We don’t have a proposal yet, but in all the presentations I’ve seen, the (potential) facilities seem to be in shallow water,” Mike Lopazanski of the N.C. Division of Coastal Management told the Charlotte Observer.

The report also notes large potential in the Pacific—approximately 900 gigawatts along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington—but that deeper waters off the Pacific coast make developing that wind energy resource far more difficult with current available technologies.

There are more than 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind projects proposed in the United States, yet the country is still waiting for its first offshore turbine. Though it has yet to receive final approval from all relevant regulatory bodies, the Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts is the closest to fruition.

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Shell Oil’s plan to acquire a junior water right for an 8% stake of Colorado’s Yampa River average April-to-June flow for oil shale development has been opposed by some twenty-five parties, all submitting letters of opposition to the District 6 Colorado Water Court in Steamboat Springs.

Among those opposing the plan were a bevy of federal, state, and local governmental agencies, a coal company, and several environmental organizations.

“Colorado’s future is the issue here,” said Roger Singer, the Sierra Club’s western regional representative, in a statement. “Do we commit this dwindling resource to energy development?”

The Yampa River is the only river left in Colorado with unappropriated water.

Shell’s plan would divert up to 375 feet per second in spring runoff months and pump the water into a new 1,000 acre, 15 billion gallon reservoir. But the viability of oil shale development in the west depends on water and energy - energy that would most likely be provided by new coal-fired generation

Shell’s application and the opposition letters will be reviewed by the water court, a process that could take up to a year and a half, considering the high number of dissenters.

Image: CC Licensed by s_medgah at flickr

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Late in the Bush administration, the president lifted an executive order banning offshore drilling. A few months later, facing skyrocketing gas prices, Congress allowed a congressional moratorium, dating back to 1982, to lapse. Offshore drilling has been blatantly polarizing national politics ever since.

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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today the department would cancel leases issued under the Bush administration allowing oil and gas drilling on more than 100,000 acres of Utah wild lands, much of it surrounding some of Utah’s most iconic treasures.

The sale of 77 leases on 103,000 acres near Canyonlands and Arches National parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon will be deemed invalid.

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Closed to visitors since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, The Statue of Liberty’s crown may be reopening if the new Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, has anything to say about it.

After the National Park Service closed both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to visitors back in 2001, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and Liberty Island reopened just three months later. And with significant modifications to the pedestal and the addition of a screening process for visitors, access to the pedestal was re-opened in 2004. But the crown never reopened.

And in a visit to the site last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar expressed his sincere hope to change that as soon as possible.

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Salazar said his first order of business would be to clean up an Interior Department troubled with ethical lapses, in particular, the Minerals Management Service which was rocked by a sex, drugs, and corruption scandal last year.

But Salazar also described his vision for an agency that would look as hard (or harder) at developing wind farms and solar thermal plants as it has looked at developing coal, oil and gas in the past.

When pushed about the specifics of his policy positions, Salazar didn’t let on too much. He did not say, for example, whether he would support a reinstatement of the ban on oil and gas drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, which Congress allowed to expire last year. But it is quite likely that Salazar would, in fact, support limited offshore drilling in certain areas, as the senator signed on to the bipartisan “Gang of Ten” compromise proposal in the Summer of 2008 that would have allowed drilling off the coast of certain Southeastern states.

But Salazar was not completely opaque.

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Ah, the executive bathroom, one of the unheralded perks of holding a cabinet-level seat. But unfortunately for outgoing Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the $236,000 renovation of the Main Interior Building Executive Suite bathroom was finally completed just in time to hand the keys over to Interior Secretary-nominee, Ken Salazar.

It is the first time any such renovations have been done at the building since it was built in 1936, but for $236K, that must be one heck of a water closet.

As part of the renovation, workers modernized and upgraded the plumbing, mechanical and lighting systems in the bathroom of the Executive Suite.  The modernization is part of a larger $243 million makeover of The Main Interior Building’s mechanical, electrical, plumbing and ventilation systems in all of its office spaces.

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Sporting his trademark cowboy hat, the denim-clad Salazar held a press conference in Denver before leaving for Washington on Sunday, saying he’d like to pass eight bills dealing mainly with wilderness and conservation issues, as soon as possible.

One of the bills would define bans on mining, timber harvesting and new roads and constructions in Rocky Mountain National Park. Others would establish the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area, South Park National Heritage Area, and the Baca National Wildlife Refuge Management.

“I have high expectations from the strong Republican and Democratic support that, perhaps even in this week,” the bills will pass, he said.

The bills passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and were included in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008. Salazar also indicated that Senate President Harry Reid would continue with the bills should they not get finished before Salazar moves on.

Because Obama’s selection of Salazar to head-up Interior brought mixed reactions from the environmental community, the announcements might go a little way towards easing the concerns of those who feel Salazar is too cozy with the oil, gas, and other extractive industries.

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In Brady’s report (and in his defense) he cited an action last week, when more than 150 environmental groups signed a letter to Obama backing Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva. But I still thought the instant assumption that “most environmentalists are fuming” was hasty. And then I got the following response from @HuffingtonPost/@COindependent:

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Despite the recent bluing trend in Colorado, the Republican Party still has a strong base in Colorado. Salazar is a centrist, and in a senate seat that is by no means a lock for Democrats, it could be argued that no matter who Gov. Ritter choses to replace Salazar, they will have their work cut out for them defending it. CQ Politics writes:

Salazar would have been decisively favored to win in a state that has trended Democratic in recent elections.

But the seat will be little tougher for the Democrats to hold with Salazar not on the ballot. Whereas Salazar would have run for re-election as a six-year incumbent, the person that Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter appoints will have served less than two years by the time of the 2010 election, when he or she presumably will seek a full six-year term.

That being said, as an environmentalist, I’m far more concerned about losing Salazar as a protector of Colorado’s rivers and streams, its mineral resources, and its public lands, than I am about the job the Senator will do protecting those things as the next Secretary of the Interior.



Image: Hurst

Last week’s well-publicized economic bailout package, included several “sweeteners” to help it through the House. Extended were the tax credits for solar, wind, and geothermal as well as tax credits for green building and energy efficiency. But what also passed was a new federal-level investment tax credit for qualified small wind turbines. The ITC is valued at $500/.5kw capacity for up to $4,000 and available for small and micro-wind turbines (up to 100kw), including vertical-axis wind turbines, installed through 2016.

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The panel, bookended by the bolo-tied U.S. Senator from Colorado Ken Salazar and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, along with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano represent the new-look Democratic Party in the West.

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