Renewable Energy and Western Public Lands Forum:
Toward a Shared Vision

Description: The western United States are rapidly moving towards a more sustainable energy policy with several states leading the charge and setting aggressive standards for the use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Because of the vast amount of public lands in the region - including national forests, parks, National Wildlife Refuges and BLM lands - it is inevitable that some federal lands will play an important role in this exciting transformation, raising important questions and challenges. What is the appropriate role for federal lands regarding the generation and transmission of renewable energy sources? How can we best avoid impacts to our most sensitive and treasured public lands? How can we best mitigate impacts in other areas? While challenging, it is vital that we address these concerns early on in the renewable energy revolution in the western United States if we are to achieve a sustainable energy future.

Meeting objective: To begin defining a shared vision of the role that federal public lands will play in the future generation and transmission of renewable energy in the West.

Format: Facilitated presentation and panel discussion. The forum will begin with an overview of the types and distribution of renewable energy resources on public lands. Then, a representative from each of the interests-renewable energy industry, federal land management agency, DOE, land and wildlife conservation, and clean energy advocates-will be given time to present views on the current and future role that federal public lands should play in the generation and transmission of clean energy. This will be followed by a facilitated discussion among participants-including written questions from the audience.

Key questions:

• What types and amounts of renewable energy resources are on federal public land?
  
  
• What role should public lands play in generation?
  
  
• For place-dependent resources such as wind and solar, what existing limitations are there on transmission.
  
  
• What role should public lands play in transmission?
  
  
• Will the role of federal public lands be different 5 years from now? 20 years from now?
  
  
• What practices should be required for energy generation and/or transmission of clean energy on federal public lands?
  
  
• Are there places on public land that generation and transmission simply are not appropriate?
  
  
• How can we work together to avoid conflicts on public lands and realize western renewable energy goals?
  
  

Panel Participants:
Host/Introductions: Pam Eaton, Deputy Vice President, The Wilderness Society
Discussion Facilitator: Amanda Ormond, Principal, Ormond Group LLC

Overview of federal lands and renewable energy resources (wind, solar, geothermal)

Perspectives:
» Industry representative:
    Craig Cox, Executive Director, Interwest Energy Alliance

» DOE representative:
    Darby Collins, Project Manager, Energy Corridor Designation (Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 368),
    U.S. Department of Energy.

» Federal Lands Manager representative:
    Bob Cunningham, Asst. Director, U.S. Forest Service, Lands and Realty Management

» Public land advocate representative:
    Nada Culver, Public Lands Senior Counsel, The Wilderness Society

» Wildlife conservation representative:
    Gary L. Graham, Vice President and Executive Director, Audubon Colorado

» Clean energy advocate representative:
    Tom Darin, Energy Transmission Attorney, Western Resource Advocates

Registration: The Forum is being held in conjunction with the Southwest Renewable Energy Conference www.swrec.org There is no fee to attend the Forum. Those who are not attending the SWREC conference should register for the Forum by providing your name, phone number and email address to CO@tws.org or by calling 303-650-5818 ext. 119. Attendees of the Forum are welcome to join the Opening Reception of the SWREC from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Millennium Harvest Hotel for a fee of $35.00. For questions on the content of the Forum please contact Tom Darin at 303-444-1188, ext 244.