ARIZONA. Arizona. Smart Solar Focusing on Low-Conflict Zones to Promote Arizona s Economy, Protect Wildlands and Build a Clean Energy Future

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1 ARIZONA The sun shines almost year round on, and with strong local support for renewable energy and proximity to urban energy markets, it is a great place for solar energy development. With the needed refinements detailed here, two of the three proposed Solar Energy Zones (SEZs) in Brenda and Gillespie hold great potential for low-conflict solar development: they are located on flat land with few sensitive natural and cultural resources and are near existing roads and transmission lines, which will lower construction costs and help get clean electricity to consumers sooner. While Bullard Wash, the third proposed SEZ in the state, contains a unique plant community and associated sensitive wildlife habitat that makes it inappropriate as a priority development area, the BLM s ongoing, -specific Restoration Design Energy Project provides great opportunities to identify additional SEZs going forward. The BLM has committed to a zone-based approach to solar development on public lands, and through extensive and ongoing research we and our conservation partners have conducted on the proposed SEZs over the past two years, we have grown ever more confident in our assessment that solar projects built there can generate enough electricity from the sun to power hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the West while minimizing environmental impacts. The Brenda and Gillespie zones and additional zones to be designated going forward will make an excellent foundation on which to build a solar energy program for public lands in. Wildlife Federation President Tom Mackin says, We recognize the importance of making American energy more secure. Future planning for solar must include a balance of meeting our energy goals coupled with the protection of critical wildlife habitat and access to public lands. We applaud the BLM for focusing solar development in suitable zones throughout the West because it will avoid conflict and delay, getting homegrown power online quickly. Smart Solar Focusing on Low-Conflict Zones to Promote s Economy, Protect Wildlands and Build a Clean Energy Future Increase economic opportunities by generating tax revenue, creating green jobs during component manufacturing and project construction and operations, and developing a market for associated service industries; Help meet state renewable energy standard has a requirement that 15% of the state s electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2025; Protect sensitive lands and the wildlife they support by ensuring development only occurs in appropriate areas; and Provide clean power to reduce carbon emissions and help preserve and protect wildlands, wildlife, water supplies and communities across America and around the globe. Avoiding Conflicts, Controversy and Costly Delays A key benefit of focusing on low-conflict SEZs for solar development is the opportunity to avoid sensitive wildlife habitat, wilderness quality lands and important cultural resources when selecting project sites. A project-by-project approach simply will not provide the predictability that developers, land managers, environmental groups and the public need to build a clean energy future at the pace and scale required. In addition, failing to focus on the most appropriate areas puts our natural heritage at risk, threatening key wildlife habitat and wildlands. For example, in, ecologically inappropriate and economically risky areas that could potentially be left open for development if the BLM does not truly focus permitting and construction of solar projects in the SEZs include: Wilderness quality lands: over 500,000 acres, including such places as the Red Rock Canyon Proposed Wilderness Area southwest of Phoenix. Adjoining the existing Woolsey Peak Wilderness and near the Gila River, Red Rock Canyon s rugged terrain provides ample opportunities for hiking, hunting and fishing and boasts Sonoran Desert wildlife such as Desert Bighorn Sheep, Sonoran desert tortoise, banded Gila monster, lowland leopard frog and a range of bat species. Page 5

2 Smart Solar BLM Proposed Solar Energy Zones 2 Yavapai La Paz 1 10 Maricopa Yuma 3 BLM Proposed Solar Energy Zone* The Wilderness Society s Recommendation: Large Map Area Candidate for Designation Should not be Designated Representative Special Status Species Habitat** BLM Desert Tortoise Essential Habitat BLM Desert Tortoise May be Essential Habitat 10 Phoenix Solar Energy Zone Name BLM Proposed Acreage Brenda 3,878 Bullard Wash 7,239 Data Sources: * Bureau of Land Management, 2010 ** Bureau of Land Management, 1992 *** National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2011 NREL Solar Energy Potential*** Excellent 8 Tucson Gillespie 2,618 Total Acres in 13,735 Miles Very Good Page 6

3 2 Bullard Wash Proposed Solar Energy Zone. 1 Brenda Proposed Solar Energy Zone. 3 Gillespie Proposed Solar Energy Zone. Page 7

4 Smart Solar Details on the Proposed SEZs The proposed SEZs in will take advantage of up-front planning to guide solar projects into areas where they will get clean energy to consumers sooner and at a lower cost, create thousands of jobs and protect the environment. The BLM will continue to refine the proposed SEZs, potentially by removing entire SEZs as well as removing some portions of SEZs based on information the agency is gathering through public comment and its own research. The potential removal of some areas also underscores the importance of ongoing and future efforts to identify new SEZs. In, the BLM s Restoration Design Energy Project (RDEP) is identifying potential low-conflict wind and solar development areas across land ownership in the state. Along with the process for designating new SEZs which the Supplement to the BLM Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement will lay out, RDEP will ensure the solar energy program for public lands in has room to grow for decades to come. Our key recommendations for needed improvements to the SEZs follow. With these improvements, based on what we know now, the proposed Brenda and Gillespie SEZs are good for solar and good for the environment. Good for Solar Great solar potential: the proposed Brenda and Gillespie SEZs receive so much sun that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory classifies the solar resource as excellent, its highest rating; Flat landscape: allows for cost effective construction; and Proximity to existing roads and transmission lines: being close to existing infrastructure speeds development and reduces impacts. Good for the Environment No conflicts with protected areas, proposed wilderness, or critical wildlife habitat; Generally dominated by sparse, shrubby plants that are of low value to wildlife; Prioritizing low water use solar technologies can limit potential impacts from groundwater pumping; and Solar power produced in SEZs will reduce our reliance on polluting fossil fuels and help tackle the threats of climate change. Even the SEZs best suited for development need to address the natural and cultural resources that exist on-site. These places may be flat but they are neither empty nor unimportant. To ensure that the SEZs are located in areas where solar projects are most likely to be built while minimizing impacts, conflicts and delays, we and our conservation partners have conducted extensive research on the proposed SEZs and made detailed recommendations to the BLM for needed improvements to the boundaries and strategies to address potential impacts at the project level. Key recommendations for each of the SEZs follow. We have also made general recommendations to improve projects by addressing key potential conflicts and issues wherever they occur, including: Prioritizing low-water use technologies to protect water resources and groundwater dependent ecosystems; Protecting water quality; Minimizing soil erosion, associated damage to vegetation, and the need to salvage state-protected native plants; Minimizing spread of soil diseases and toxins; Safeguarding habitat connectivity and wildlife movement corridors; Avoiding impacts to sensitive species in playa wetlands; Avoiding potential desert tortoise critical habitat and using best practices for tortoise relocation; Protecting sensitive and important species, such as desert tortoise, pronghorn, desert horned lizard, greater sagegrouse, and rare desert, riparian and groundwater-dependent plants; and Evaluating proximity to existing or need for new transmission, roads and other associated infrastructure. Brenda SEZ The proposed Brenda SEZ is two miles east of the town of Brenda in La Paz, west-central. The proposed SEZ is situated in a valley with the Granite Wash and Little Harquahala Mountains to the east and the Plomosa Mountains and Bear Hills to the west. US Highway 60 runs adjacent to the southeast border, providing excellent access to the site. Key recommended refinements and strategies to minimize impacts: Revise the boundaries to avoid the Tyson and Bouse washes on the northwestern and northeastern corners of the proposed SEZ. These areas include a greater diversity of plant and animal species and are also key for maintaining surface water flow and groundwater recharge. Page 8

5 Bullard Wash SEZ The proposed Bullard Wash SEZ is located in Yavapai in west-central, 70 miles northwest of Phoenix. The proposed SEZ is in a valley with the Black Mountains to the north, the Harcuvar Mountains to the Southwest and the Date Creek Mountains to the northeast. Overall, concerns about the diverse plant and wildlife community present in the proposed Bullard Wash SEZ as well as potential effects from solar development on special status species in the area make it unlikely that environmentally responsible development is possible in this area. For these reasons, we recommend that the BLM should not designate Bullard Wash as a SEZ. Key characteristics which are incompatible with solar development: This area supports a diverse assemblage of plants characteristic of both the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, including large areas of palo verde cactus shrub, Joshua trees and saguaro cacti. In addition to unacceptable impacts which development in this area could cause, the strict native plant salvage laws could create extensive and costly salvage requirements for development of large solar projects in many areas of the proposed SEZ; and Species listed under the Endangered Species Act with potential habitat in the Bullard Wash area include Gila topminnow (endangered), cliff rose (endangered), desert pupfish (endangered), the Sonoran population of the bald eagle (threatened), and southwestern willow flycatcher (endangered, and observed on the proposed SEZ during site surveys). Gillespie SEZ The proposed Gillespie SEZ is located in western Maricopa, 26 miles southwest of the town of Goodyear. The SEZ is southeast of the Harquahala Basin, between the Gila Bend Mountains to the southwest and Centennial Wash to the northeast. There are numerous existing transmission lines north and east of the SEZ, including five 500 kv lines and one 345 kv line less than a mile away. While the northern portion of the proposed SEZ is appropriate for development, the southern portion includes extensive riparian wash complexes that would create significant challenges for construction and could cause unacceptable impacts to wildlife habitat, and thus should be excluded from the SEZ. Key recommended refinements and strategies to minimize impacts: Revise the boundary to exclude the area south of Agua Caliente Road. Extensive grading would be required to develop the southern portion of the proposed Gillespie SEZ, causing unacceptable impacts to wildlife habitat and increased project costs. Page 9