BLM Arizona Energy Goals and Strategy   

The BLM Arizona has taken a strategic approach in managing the needs for renewable energy locations on public lands. To meet our goals, Arizona BLM will:

Participate with landowners, business, scientists, conservation interests, and government in the development of renewable energy strategies for Arizona. 

• Include land, financing, technical expertise, and public perspectives.

• Coordinate processes and data sharing with entities that affect renewable energy.

• Maintain, update and publicly share information, on the status and progress of renewable energy proposals and processes.

• Support energy forums that promote collaboration at statewide and national levels.

• Require scoping processes to identify potential options, issues, and alternatives to support careful and thoughtful analyses.

 Contribute to Arizona community power demands and state goals for development of renewable energy on public lands. State goals include a 15% renewable energy target by 2025. 

• Responsively process proposals in the application pool (both active and inactive).

• Support national Programmatic Solar Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that includes Arizona Solar Energy Zones.

• Complete the Restoration Design Energy Project EIS on schedule.

• Coordinate with state agencies having jurisdiction or roles and responsibilities.

 Focus efforts on potential generation sites and transmission alignments that optimize natural resource values (including water and wildlife) on public lands while meeting technical and economic requirements.

• Ensure public interests in conservation of open space, water, and ecological functions are represented in discussion processes.

 • Emphasize low-water technology to offset water impacts or use mitigation appropriate to the water basin.

• Emphasize locations near existing transmission capacity or in proximity to load requirements.

• Emphasize previously disturbed acreage in the statewide analysis of options.

• Provide sufficient acreage to allow design choices relative to energy generation and transmission in Arizona, including distributed energy.

• Include cooperative options with non-Federal lands.

• Encourage sustainability in project design.