By Lena Babaeva

The Interior Department Secretary, Ken Salazar, has formed an energy and climate change task force. Perhaps most significantly:

The task force will identify specific zones on U.S. public lands where the department can facilitate a "rapid and responsible move to large-scale production of solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass energy," the secretary said.

"We will assign a high priority to identifying renewable energy zones and completing the permitting and appropriate environmental review of transmission rights-of-way applications that are necessary to deliver renewable energy generation to consumers," Salazar said. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the wind of the plains with the places where people live."

In order to make the renewable energy zones work, electric transmission corridors will need to be formed to deliver the energy to the major population centers.  The aim should be aided by the fact that the Interior Department manages one fifth of the country’s landmass, as well as some offshore acreages.

Interior's Bureau of Land Management has identified about 21 million acres of public land with wind energy potential in the 11 western states and about 29 million acres with solar energy potential in the six southwestern states. There are also 140 million acres of public land in western states and Alaska that have geothermal resource potential.

The task force will have to establish transmission lines and priorities in terms of what energy to tap into the most to obtain the most efficient results in bringing renewable energy to consumers.   Some of the obstacles that the task force hopes to resolve will be permitting, siting, development and production issues.

Some environmentalists are not happy about this project, because it could lead to a destruction of wilderness in order to facilitate the building of the renewable energy zones. 

Thanks to Michael Cecire for suggesting this entry.