The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said in a notice to be published in the Jan. 17 Federal Register that it is extending a key “segregation” provision that is helping with the development of the Searchlight Wind Energy LLC project in Nevada.
This notice serves to extend the segregation of the certain federal lands for an additional six months. “This segregation extension is warranted to allow for the orderly administration of the public lands to facilitate the development of valuable renewable resources and to avoid conflicts between renewable energy generation and mining claims,” said the BLM notice.
Searchlight Wind Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), applied to the BLM for a right-of-way (ROW) grant on public lands to develop a 200-MW wind facility. The ROW application area encompasses approximately 18,790 acres of BLM-administered public lands adjacent to Searchlight, located about 60 miles southeast of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nev.
The initial two-year segregation for this property would expire on Jan. 20, with BLM now granting a six-month extension. “The segregation is necessary to prevent the filing of mining claims in the project area that would hinder the development of the project and increase costs to the development of the project,” BLM explained. “This temporary segregation extension does not affect valid existing rights in mining claims located before this segregation notice. Licenses, permits, cooperative agreements, or discretionary land use authorizations of a temporary nature which would not impact lands identified in this notice may be allowed with the approval of an authorized officer of the BLM during the segregative period.”
