Energy

Audubon North Carolina, the state office of the National Audubon Society, is praising Governor Roy Cooper for signing HB589 into law and ensuring the continued growth of North Carolina's solar industry.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has finalized its rule governing solar and wind energy development on public lands, creating a new leasing program that it says will support renewable energy development through competitive leasing processes and incentives to encourage development in suitable areas.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell joined federal, state and local officials to announce approval of Phase I of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), an innovative, landscape-level renewable energy and conservation planning effort covering 10.8 million acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the California desert.

Representatives of Audubon California said a new plan released Sept. 14 for renewable energy development across 10 million acres of federal public lands in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts will help birds two ways: first, by safeguarding the most important landscapes for resident and migratory birds; and second, by helping accelerate California to its ambitious renewable energy goals.

As part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, create jobs and move our economy toward clean energy sources, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on Feb. 19 announced the approval of two solar energy projects located near the Nevada-California border that are expected to supply 550 megawatts of renewable energy and support more than 700 jobs through construction and operations.