Burning Man to buy back geothermal leases, drop BLM lawsuit

By Scott Streater | 10/11/2024 01:36 PM EDT

The deal resolves a lawsuit challenging BLM’s approval of an exploratory drilling project near the playa where the festival draws thousands of people each year.

An aerial view of Black Rocky City beginning to grow during the opening of Burning Man in Gerlach, Nevada.

Black Rock Desert begins to grow during the opening of Burning Man in Gerlach, Nevada, on Aug. 27, 2006. Ron Lewis/AP

Organizers of the Burning Man festival in northwest Nevada have reached a settlement with a geothermal energy developer that cancels an exploratory drilling project that some feared would ruin the ambiance of the counter-culture event.

The settlement resolves a federal lawsuit filed last year by the festival organizers and others challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of a 19-well exploratory drilling project near the Black Rock Desert playa where the festival draws tens of thousands of people each year.

Under the terms of the agreement announced this week, Burning Man will buy back the drilling leases issued by BLM to Reno, Nevada-based Ormat Technologies and the exploratory drilling project will be canceled. The cost of the buyback was not revealed.

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Ormat has also agreed to support efforts by the festival to convert the site of the leases near the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area into a “conservation zone supporting sustainable habitat and local tourism.”

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