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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
New Mexico Land Managers To Study Solar Possibilities
By Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press
As efforts to build solar-power facilities on public land in New Mexico gain steam, some experts say federal officials should proceed cautiously as they consider where to put them.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced this week that the Bureau of Land Management will fast-track efforts to build solar power generating facilities on public space in six Western states, including New Mexico.
The department has set aside nearly 190 square miles in southern New Mexico for two years of study and environmental review to determine where solar power stations should be built. One parcel is bordered by White Sands Missile Range, and the other two are west and south of Las Cruces.
The idea of harnessing the sun's energy is nothing new in New Mexico — solar panels have long been a fixture on rooftops around the state — but using public land to build commercial-scale solar plants is uncharted territory for an agency known for managing oil and gas exploration, grazing and recreation.
"As far as BLM New Mexico goes, it's like babies in a crib," said Bill Merhege, deputy state BLM director for lands and resources. "We're learning as we go."
As it does with other land-use proposals, the BLM will carefully review the potential environmental impacts of designating solar energy areas on public land.
Merhege said the agency manages land for multiple uses, but the solar stations could change that in some areas.
"These solar facilities are going to result in the land going from multiple-use lands ... to a single use, pretty much," he said. "They are going to eliminate all the vegetation where the solar panels are going in, and basically you're going to have a carpet of glass out there with a buffer zone around it."
Abbas Ghassemi, director of New Mexico State University's Institute for Energy and the Environment, said the agency has an opportunity to steer a burgeoning industry in a direction that will not result in a legacy like that left behind by coal-fired power plants and strip mines.
"I think the footprint is important. I think the design is important. I think the environmental impact is important," he said. "It's going to be in front of folks a long time from now, and these issues need to be addressed very elegantly."
Odes Armijo-Caster, president of the Renewable Energy Industries Association of New Mexico, said he supports renewable energy but believes wind turbines and solar panels shouldn't line every mountain top. He said choosing the right locations for future power plants will be a balancing act and that rooftops should be a place the federal government looks as it tries to ease the country's dependence on foreign fuels.
Armijo-Caster was joined Tuesday by state Public Regulation Commissioner Jason Marks as the citizens group Environment New Mexico released a report on the cost of using fossil fuels.
New Mexico will spend as much as $230 billion on oil, coal and other fossil fuels between 2010 and 2030 — more than five times the earnings of New Mexico workers in 2007, according to the report.
Jake Horowitz of Environment New Mexico said the BLM's solar study is a step in the right direction, but the nation needs an energy portfolio that requires more of America's power to come from renewable sources. Horowitz maintains that the economic and environmental costs of renewable energy will be less over time than if the country maintains its use of fossil fuels.
Marks said there was doubt when New Mexico first proposed its renewable energy standard. Today, the state gets about 6 percent of its power from renewable sources.
"There were plenty of people who said it was not going to work, that we couldn't afford it, and that we should leave it to the very smart people who run energy and utility companies. That's just absolutely the wrong approach," he said. "Energy policy is too important to leave to private interests. We need to take control of our destiny."
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