US Cancels Major Solar Project in Nevada Biden Had Supported
(Bloomberg) -- The US is canceling a huge solar project in Nevada, the latest effort by President Donald Trump to limit renewable energy development.
The Esmeralda Seven solar farm is now listed as “canceled,” according to the Bureau of Land Management’s website, which was last updated Thursday.
The project, as proposed by developers including NextEra Energy Inc. and Invenergy, comprised seven solar farms spanning 118,000 acres of federal land northwest of Las Vegas. It would have been one of the world’s largest photovoltaic power plants.
The Interior Department said in a statement that developers now have the option to “submit individual project proposals to the BLM to more effectively analyze potential impacts.” The decision comes as the department institutes permitting reviews and other requirements for wind and solar farms on public lands that critics say effectively prevents development of clean-energy projects on federal property.
Among them is a directive the requires Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to personally sign off on 69 separate approvals for wind and solar proposals, and an energy-capacity density standard that may be difficult for solar projects to meet.
NextEra said in a statement that it’s still committed to “pursuing our project’s comprehensive environmental analysis by working closely with the Bureau of Land Management.”
A spokesperson for Invenergy declined to comment.
Esmeralda Seven was one of several major clean-energy projects that had been advanced by President Joe Biden, but his efforts to promote renewable energy have faced increasing opposition since Trump took office.
“The gears have ground to a halt for all of the public lands solar projects in the state, not just this one,” said Patrick Donnelly, a Nevada-based director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
(Adds comments from NextEra in sixth paragraph.)
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