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AP IMPACT: Delays plague solar energy on fed lands

AP -- ROACH DRY LAKE, Nev. – Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground.

Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle.

An Associated Press examination of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records and interviews with agency officials shows that the BLM operated a first-come, first-served leasing system that quickly overwhelmed its small staff and enabled companies, regardless of solar industry experience, to squat on land without any real plans to develop it.

At a time when the nation drills ever deeper for oil off its shores even as it tries to diversify its e

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Submitted Sep 01, 2010 By: WonderfulMI

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northeast2 Champion Author New York Posts:2,692 Points:756,830 Joined:Mar 2008	Message Posted: Sep 3, 2010 12:40:41 AM Ignore northeast2 Report Abuse Ah, so the Bureau of Land Management is the anti-MMS - you lease it, you don't develop it. Wonder if all of the lessees are fronts for oil companies.
SVmike Champion Author California Posts:1,426 Points:307,850 Joined:Dec 2009	Message Posted: Sep 1, 2010 1:57:32 PM Ignore SVmike Report Abuse A bunch of do-gooder politicians, again duped by thinking they can pick winners
bluehawk43 All-Star Author Arkansas Posts:679 Points:503,890 Joined:May 2009	Message Posted: Sep 1, 2010 9:57:04 AM Ignore bluehawk43 Report Abuse That's our government in action.
NekoSJG Champion Author San Jose Posts:3,255 Points:574,930 Joined:Jun 2010	Message Posted: Sep 1, 2010 9:40:48 AM Ignore NekoSJG Report Abuse Speculators again? BLM needs to charge a hefty rents to get the speculators out of the system and allow revenue and value added development to progress.
chemist74 Champion Author Cleveland Posts:12,403 Points:2,181,990 Joined:Apr 2005	Message Posted: Sep 1, 2010 9:01:08 AM Ignore chemist74 Report Abuse It would be interesting to see what the lease agreement requires. even when the government was giving away government land to the public, the government required the person claiming the land to make improvements. How much are the groups required to pay annually for these leases?
GingoutMD Champion Author Maryland Posts:2,327 Points:478,655 Joined:Jan 2010	Message Posted: Sep 1, 2010 8:49:46 AM Ignore GingoutMD Report Abuse It would seem that a team that supports the BLM should be able to come up with a method to legally rescind the false applications and take back that land or at least offer the land to some firm who will develop it for solar generation.
car253 Champion Author Ohio Posts:4,211 Points:1,036,265 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: Sep 1, 2010 8:27:54 AM Ignore car253 Report Abuse Is anyone surprised?