Millions of Acres of Federal Land to Open for Large-Scale Renewable Installations

The Interior Department announced on Aug. 6 that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that encourages appropriate development of renewable energy projects on public lands set aside for defense-related purposes, and on other onshore and offshore areas near military installations. Department of Defense (DoD) installations encompass roughly 28 million acres in the United States, including 16 million acres previously managed by the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that were withdrawn from military use. About 13 million acres of these withdrawn lands are located in the West and are rich in wind, solar and geothermal resources.

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