The Bureau of Land Management is paving the way for a major solar power project to be built in a valley west of Las Vegas despite the objections of environmental groups that have petitioned the agency to protect the region.
The bureau Thursday released a final proposal amending a southern Nevada land-use plan to allow for the eventual construction of the Rough Hat Clark County Solar Project, which would cover about 2,400 acres of federal lands and have a capacity to produce enough electricity to power about 120,000 homes.
The plan, outlined in a final environmental impact statement that will be formally published in Friday’s Federal Register, would not only amend the Las Vegas resource management plan (RMP) to address federal visual resource requirements for the region, but would also set construction and restoration parameters for the solar project, including setting a “maximum disturbance threshold” to help reduce harm to vegetation and soils.
BLM’s proposal, first unveiled in January, would also require that no more than 21 percent of the actual 1,900-acre project site could be clear cut of vegetation and graded over to allow for the solar panels. The rest of the project would need to employ other techniques, such as elevated solar panels, that allow for plants to remain mostly intact.
