The Bureau of Land Management is due to receive public input on 26 oil and gas parcels totaling about 5,053 acres that may be included in lease sale in Montana and North Dakota. The sale will include updated fiscal provisions authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, including a royalty rate of 16.67 percent. The lease sale is expected to be held in July 2024.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is due to receive comments on a draft revision of its technical guidance for evaluating environmental justice in regulatory analysis. The guidance directs EPA analysts to assess whether environmental justice concerns exist prior to the rulemaking and whether such concerns are likely to be exacerbated or mitigated for each regulatory option under consideration. The technical guidance makes recommendations designed to ensure greater consistency across EPA assessments of environmental justice concerns for regulatory actions.

The Bureau of Land Management will hold an in-person public meeting to discuss a draft resource management plan amendment and draft environmental impact statement for Candela Renewables LLC’s proposal to construct a 400-megawatt solar power and battery storage project in Clark County, Nevada. The proposed Rough Hat Clark Solar Project would be located on about 2,400 acres. A virtual meeting will be held on Feb. 1.

Longroad Energy Management LLC will host a virtual public meeting to discuss its proposed Artemesia Solar project, a 300-megawatt alternating current solar power and battery storage project in Lyon County, Nevada. Artemesia Solar LLC, a subsidiary of Longroad Energy, has submitted a 30-year right-of-way application to the Bureau of Land Management. The proposed facility would include two solar generating facility areas with a collector line encompassing about 4,368 acres of public lands. Another meeting will be held on Feb. 1.

The U.S. Energy Department is due to receive proposals for deconversion services to help establish a reliable domestic supply of fuels for advanced reactors using high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, an important material required to develop advanced reactors. Deconversion contracts will last for up to 10 years, and the base awards guarantee a minimum of $2 million to each recipient. Deconversion and storage services must occur in the continental U.S. and ensure compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The department projects that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU would be needed by the end of the decade, with additional amounts required each year, to deploy a new fleet of advanced reactors in time to progress towards the Biden administration goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold a meeting to discuss a draft environmental review of six wind lease areas offshore New York and New Jersey, in the area called New York Bight. The agency estimates that full development of leases in this area, totaling more than 488,000 acres, has the potential to produce 5.6 to 7 gigawatts of offshore wind energy. This marks the first regional analysis of offshore renewable energy development and operations over multiple lease areas. Further environmental analyses specific to each proposed project will build off this programmatic review after the agency receives individual project plans. An auction held in 2022 for rights to the six areas resulted in over $4.3 billion in lease sale revenue. Additional meetings will be held on Feb. 5, 7, 8, and 13. Comments are due by Feb. 26.

The U.S. Energy Department seeks information and recommendations on the first phase of its guidance to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, or NIETCs. The four-phase process begins with the evaluation of the results of the most recent study identifying potential geographic areas for designation. A preliminary list of potential designations will be issued in the next phase. During the third phase, the department will continue to assess the basis for designation, initiate any needed environmental reviews, and conduct public engagement, culminating in the release of one or more draft designation reports and environmental documents. The fourth phase concludes the process with the release of final reports and documents. The Federal Power Act requires the department to issue a report once every three years to designate as a NIETC any area experiencing, or expected to experience, transmission capacity constraints or congestion that affects consumers.