ELR Citation: 44 ELR 20143
No(s). 13-cv-339 (S.D. Cal. Jun 25, 2014) (Miller, J.)

A district court held that BLM complied with NEPA when it issued a programmatic EIS for utility-scale solar energy projects in six southwestern states. Environmental groups filed suit under NEPA, claiming that BLM failed to consider reasonable alternatives to utility-scale solar energy development on public lands, particularly the distributed generation alternative and the disturbed lands alternative. The EIS, however, contains an entire subsection entitled “Distributed Generation” that discusses BLM's rationale for excluding distributed generation from the EIS and limiting the scope of the EIS to utility-scale solar projects. Moreover, BLM’s determination that distributed generation is not feasible from a technical and commercial perspective merits deference. BLM therefore provided more than sufficient discussion and analysis of the distributed generation alternative to satisfy NEPA. Likewise, BLM's consideration of disturbed land use in the EIS satisfies its obligations under NEPA. While the possibility of limiting development to disturbed lands was not incorporated into the EIS as an independent alternative, strong consideration was given to the use of disturbed lands for solar development throughout the EIS. And because this is a programmatic EIS rather than a project-specific EIS, all solar energy projects proposed under the EIS will undergo site-specific environmental review once solar developers submit applications for individual projects. The EIS, therefore, does not remove BLM's obligation to consider the site-specific environmental impacts of using undisturbed land as opposed to a parcel of disturbed land.