E&E News Federal green energy fees should help offset impacts to public lands -- poll Western voters say they want to see a portion of fees paid to develop large-scale renewable energy projects on federal lands used to mitigate impacts to natural resources, a provision that is included in bipartisan legislation that has stalled in Congress. A new poll of 2,600 voters in 11 Western states, commissioned by the Wilderness Society and conducted during the congressional recess last month, found strong support for the continued development of wind, solar and geothermal power on public lands. But the poll results released today also indicate that voters overwhelmingly want federally collected revenues (rents) from wind and solar projects on public lands to be dedicated to offsetting the impacts on wildlife habitat and recreation areas, according to a summary of the survey results from Denver-based Peak Campaigns, which conducted the poll (...) The latest poll comes at a time of unprecedented solar- and wind-power development on federal lands, where the Obama administration since 2009 has approved 52 renewable energy projects. If all are built, the 52 projects will generate more than 14,000 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power up to 4.8 million homes and businesses.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:00:00 +0000
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