Environmentalists concerned about potential damage to desertecosystems, electric utilities wanting to expand into the growing solarenergy market, and anyone else for that matter, have been given untilSeptember 14 to tell the government their concerns about a plan to opensome 670,000 acres of federal land to development for large-scale solarpower facilities. The change adds 45 days to the original publiccomment period.

In announcing the change, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, explained:

“Participation in this process by local communities and otherstakeholders is crucial to making the choices that will open up thestaggering clean-energy potential on America’s public lands. Extendingthe comment period will allow more of the public to look more carefullyat the proposed renewable energy zones where we will give priority tolarge-scale renewable energy projects.”

Comments can be sent via the Web here. (http://www.solareis.anl.gov)

Need to learn more about the program before commenting? Here arelinks to just about everything you might want to know about the program.

The Solar Energy Study Area main site

Detailed maps of the proposed SESA

Public meeting transcripts

Miscellaneous documents

DesertBlog

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