Dive Summary:

• The announcement will be made official when published in the upcoming Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), a release from the Department of the Interior in partnership with the Department of Energy.
• The PEIS identifies 17 Solar Energy Zones (SEZs) that account for about 285,000 acres of public land in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, and also allows for utility-scale development on roughly 19 million acres in areas just outside certain SEZs.
• Prior to Barack Obama taking office in 2009, there weren’t any solar projects allowed on public lands, but 17 utility-scale projects have been approved in the three years since his election.

From the article:

The Department of the Interior, in partnership with the Department of Energy, will publish the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development in six southwestern states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

The final Solar PEIS represents a major step forward in the permitting of utility-scale solar energy on public lands throughout the west. ...