Last month, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its final environmental analysis of changes to greater sage grouse management. The final environmental impact statement (EIS) prohibits wind, solar, and transmission projects and restricts other multiple-use projects on 34.5 million acres across 10 Western states.
Biden’s BLM haste to finalize this rule comes before the Trump administration enters office in January 2025. Experts believe the added protections could undermine the president-elect’s “drill baby drill” agenda.
The BLM manages 65 million of the 145 million acres of greater sage-grouse habitat in the U.S. Portions of California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming are affected by the final recommendations. The acreage under management adds new and stronger conservation requirements and seriously prohibits and restricts coal and hard rock mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, and livestock grazing.
BLM estimates that less than 800,000 greater sage grouse remain. However, the greater sage grouse is not formally listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. That’s probably a good thing, as ESA protections are severely restrictive and treat landowners as regulatory targets rather than partners in conservation. Only 3% of species listed under the ESA have recovered and been delisted, and only 4% are improving.
The state of Nevada is particularly hard-hit by the Biden administration’s BLM regulations. Wind and solar are functionally prohibited on 9.6 million acres in northern and central Nevada under the sage grouse plan. However, the Western Solar Plan prioritizes utility-scale solar development on 12 million acres of the state. The Biden administration’s priorities—catalyzing wind and solar development on public lands while incentivizing non-use and preservation—are coming to a head in Nevada.
Traditional oil and gas development is often blamed for threatening greater sage grouse populations, but wind, solar, and transmission lines pose the same threat to their habitat.
The Wildlife Society published a first-of-its-kind study in June 2024 suggesting that the higher the density of wind turbines, the greater the likelihood a male sage grouse abandons its breeding grounds. IWF Center for Energy and Conservation Director Gabriella Hoffman analyzed this study further, explaining:
A topline finding was this: the higher the wind turbine density, the more likely some male sage grouse abandoned their leks.
“There were three leks where the distribution [of turbines] was really concentrated close by. They all became inactive. All the birds quit attending those leks,” Dr. Jeffrey Beck, a University of Wyoming researcher and co-author of the study, told Oil City News.
Wildfires also seriously threaten sage grouse habitat, though more active wildfire management might help.
The BLM is accepting formal protests through December 16, 2024 on the final environmental impact statement. Protests may be filed by any person who participated in the planning process, which includes calling a BLM field office, attending a public meeting, discussing the project with BLM employees in the field, making oral comments, and sending written comments.
This piece was originally published at the Independent Women’s Forum Center for Energy and Conservation on December 2, 2024.