The Bureau of Land Management will hold a virtual meeting to discuss a draft analysis of an update to its 2012 Western Solar Plan, which guides responsible solar energy development on public lands. The program currently includes six states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah – with high solar potential and low resource conflicts to ensure responsible solar deployment and provide certainty to developers. The updated roadmap refines the analysis of the six states and adds five new states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. The move follows a notice of intent issued in December 2022 to develop a programmatic environmental impact statement for the agency’s utility-scale solar energy planning.

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 in 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. 7, 8, and 13. Comments are due by Feb. 26.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management seeks comments to prepare a regional environmental review of potential development activities on five offshore wind lease areas off California’s central and north coasts. The programmatic environmental impact statement will describe the potential impacts of wind energy development activities in the areas, as well as changes that could result from adopting programmatic mitigation measures. The agency will conduct subsequent site-specific analyses and consultations required under the National Environmental Policy Act for individual proposed projects as construction and operations plans for those projects are received. READ MORE

The Bureau of Land Management will hold a scoping public meeting to discuss the preparation of a draft environmental impact statement for NextEra Energy Resources LLC’s proposal to construct a 200-megawatt solar power and battery storage project in Washoe County, Nevada. The proposed Dodge Flat II Solar Project would be located on about 700 acres of public land and 1,041 acres of private land. Comments are due by Feb. 23.

The Bureau of Land Management is due to receive public input on 20 oil and gas parcels totaling about 11,250 acres that may be included in a lease sale in Wyoming. The sale will include updated fiscal provisions authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, including a royalty rate of 16.67 percent.

The U.S. Energy Department is due to receive concept papers from states, territories and units of local government for a $530 million competitive grant to adopt and implement the latest building codes. The initiative is funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which provides over $1 billion for state and local action to modernize the nation’s building stock. The funding opportunity will also contribute to supporting inclusive programs in line with President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, while ensuring that nonprofits, industry leaders, and states are well-prepared to execute energy efficiency projects to decarbonize buildings and foster inclusive workforce training initiatives. READ MORE