I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 178
To promote the development of renewable energy on public lands, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Mr. L
EVINintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
A BILL
To promote the development of renewable energy on public
lands, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Land Renew-4
able Energy Development Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 6
The table of contents for this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
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Sec. 4. Land use planning; updates to programmatic environmental impact
statements.
Sec. 5. Limited grandfathering.
Sec. 6. Disposition of revenues.
Sec. 7. Savings.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
1
In this Act: 2
(1) C
OVERED LAND.—The term ‘‘covered land’’ 3
means land that is— 4
(A) Federal lands administered by the Sec-5
retary; and 6
(B) not excluded from the development of 7
geothermal, solar, or wind energy under— 8
(i) a land use plan; or 9
(ii) other Federal law. 10
(2) E
XCLUSION AREA.—The term ‘‘exclusion 11
area’’ means covered land that is identified by the 12
Bureau of Land Management as not suitable for de-13
velopment of renewable energy projects. 14
(3) F
EDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 15
means— 16
(A) public lands; and 17
(B) lands of the National Forest System 18
as described in section 11(a) of the Forest and 19
Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 20
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)). 21
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(4) FUND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the Re-1
newable Energy Resource Conservation Fund estab-2
lished by section 6(c)(1). 3
(5) L
AND USE PLAN .—The term ‘‘land use 4
plan’’ means— 5
(A) in regard to Federal land, a land use 6
plan established under the Federal Land Policy 7
and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 8
et seq.); and 9
(B) in regard to National Forest System 10
lands, a land management plan approved, 11
amended, or revised under section 6 of the For-12
est and Rangeland Renewable Resources Plan-13
ning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604). 14
(6) P
RIORITY AREA.—The term ‘‘priority area’’ 15
means covered land identified by the land use plan-16
ning process of the Bureau of Land Management as 17
being a preferred location for a renewable energy 18
project, including a designated leasing area (as de-19
fined in section 2801.5(b) of title 43, Code of Fed-20
eral Regulations (or a successor regulation)) that is 21
identified under the rule of the Bureau of Land 22
Management entitled ‘‘Competitive Processes, 23
Terms, and Conditions for Leasing Public Lands for 24
Solar and Wind Energy Development and Technical 25
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Changes and Corrections’’ (81 Fed. Reg. 92122 1
(December 19, 2016)) (or a successor regulation). 2
(7) P
UBLIC LANDS.—The term ‘‘public lands’’ 3
has the meaning given that term in section 103 of 4
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 5
1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702). 6
(8) R
ENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT .—The term 7
‘‘renewable energy project’’ means a project carried 8
out on covered land that uses wind, solar, or geo-9
thermal energy to generate energy. 10
(9) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 11
the Secretary of the Interior. 12
(10) V
ARIANCE AREA.—The term ‘‘variance 13
area’’ means covered land that is— 14
(A) not an exclusion area; 15
(B) not a priority area; and 16
(C) identified by the Secretary as poten-17
tially available for renewable energy develop-18
ment and could be approved without a plan 19
amendment, consistent with the principles of 20
multiple use (as defined in the Federal Land 21
Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 22
1701 et seq.)). 23
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SEC. 4. LAND USE PLANNING; UPDATES TO PRO-1
GRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 2
STATEMENTS. 3
(a) P
RIORITYAREAS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consulta-5
tion with the Secretary of Energy, shall establish 6
priority areas on covered land for geothermal, solar, 7
and wind energy projects, consistent with the prin-8
ciples of multiple use (as defined in the Federal 9
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 10
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)) and the renewable energy per-11
mitting goal enacted by the Consolidated Appropria-12
tions Act of 2021 (Public Law 116–260). Among 13
applications for a given renewable energy source, 14
proposed projects located in priority areas for that 15
renewable energy source shall— 16
(A) be given the highest priority for 17
incentivizing deployment thereon; and 18
(B) be offered the opportunity to partici-19
pate in any regional mitigation plan developed 20
for the relevant priority areas. 21
(2) E
STABLISHING PRIORITY AREAS .— 22
(A) G
EOTHERMAL ENERGY .—For geo-23
thermal energy, the Secretary shall establish 24
priority areas as soon as practicable, but not 25
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later than 5 years, after the date of the enact-1
ment of this Act. 2
(B) S
OLAR ENERGY.—For solar energy— 3
(i) solar designated leasing areas (in-4
cluding the solar energy zones established 5
by Bureau of Land Management Solar En-6
ergy Program, established in October 7
2012), and any subsequent land use plan 8
amendments, shall be considered to be pri-9
ority areas for solar energy projects; and 10
(ii) the Secretary shall complete a 11
process to consider establishing additional 12
solar priority areas as soon as practicable, 13
but not later than 3 years, after the date 14
of the enactment of this Act. 15
(C) W
IND ENERGY.—For wind energy, the 16
Secretary shall complete a process to consider 17
establishing additional wind priority areas as 18
soon as practicable, but not later than 3 years, 19
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 20
(b) V
ARIANCEAREAS.—Variance areas shall be con-21
sidered for renewable energy project development, con-22
sistent with the principles of multiple use (as defined in 23
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 24
(43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)) and the renewable energy per-25
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mitting goal enacted by the Consolidated Appropriations 1
Act of 2021 (Public Law 116–260), and applications for 2
a given renewable energy source located in those variance 3
areas shall be timely processed in order to assist in meet-4
ing that goal. 5
(c) R
EVIEW ANDMODIFICATION.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not less than once every 10 7
years, the Secretary shall— 8
(A) review the adequacy of land allocations 9
for geothermal, solar, and wind energy priority, 10
exclusion, and variance areas for the purpose of 11
encouraging and facilitating new renewable en-12
ergy development opportunities; and 13
(B) based on the review carried out under 14
subparagraph (A), add, modify, or eliminate 15
priority, variance, and exclusion areas. 16
(2) E
XCEPTION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 17
apply to the renewable energy land use planning 18
published in the Desert Renewable Energy Con-19
servation Plan developed by the California Energy 20
Commission, the California Department of Fish and 21
Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management, and the 22
United States Fish and Wildlife Service until Janu-23
ary 1, 2030. 24
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(d) COMPLIANCEWITH THENATIONALENVIRON-1
MENTALPOLICYACT.—For purposes of this section, com-2
pliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 3
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall be accomplished— 4
(1) for geothermal energy, by updating the doc-5
ument entitled ‘‘Final Programmatic Environmental 6
Impact Statement for Geothermal Leasing in the 7
Western United States’’, dated October 2008, and 8
incorporating any additional regional analyses that 9
have been completed by Federal agencies since that 10
programmatic environmental impact statement was 11
finalized; 12
(2) for solar energy, by updating the document 13
entitled ‘‘Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 14
Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in 15
Six Southwestern States’’, dated July 2012, and in-16
corporating any additional regional analyses that 17
have been completed by Federal agencies since that 18
programmatic environmental impact statement was 19
finalized; and 20
(3) for wind energy, by updating the document 21
entitled ‘‘Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 22
Statement on Wind Energy Development on BLM– 23
Administered Lands in the Western United States’’, 24
dated July 2005, and incorporating any additional 25
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regional analyses that have been completed by Fed-1
eral agencies since the programmatic environmental 2
impact statement was finalized. 3
(e) N
OEFFECT ONPROCESSINGSITESPECIFICAP-4
PLICATIONS.—Site specific environmental review and 5
processing of permits for proposed projects shall proceed 6
during preparation of an updated programmatic environ-7
mental impact statement, resource management plan, or 8
resource management plan amendment. 9
(f) C
OORDINATION.—In developing updates required 10
by this section, the Secretary shall coordinate, on an ongo-11
ing basis, with appropriate State, Tribal, and local govern-12
ments, transmission infrastructure owners and operators, 13
developers, and other appropriate entities to ensure that 14
priority areas identified by the Secretary are— 15
(1) economically viable (including having access 16
to existing and planned transmission lines); 17
(2) likely to avoid or minimize impacts to habi-18
tat for animals and plants, recreation, cultural re-19
sources, and other uses of covered land; and 20
(3) consistent with section 202 of the Federal 21
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 22
U.S.C. 1712), including subsection (c)(9) of that 23
section (43 U.S.C. 1712(c)(9)). 24
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SEC. 5. LIMITED GRANDFATHERING. 1
(a) D
EFINITION OFPROJECT.—In this section, the 2
term ‘‘project’’ means a system described in section 3
2801.9(a)(4) of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations (as 4
in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act). 5
(b) R
EQUIREMENTTOPAYRENTS ANDFEES.—Un-6
less otherwise agreed to by the owner of a project, the 7
owner of a project that applied for a right-of-way under 8
section 501 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 9
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1761) on or before December 19, 10
2016, shall be obligated to pay with respect to the right- 11
of-way all rents and fees in effect before the effective date 12
of the rule of the Bureau of Land Management entitled 13
‘‘Competitive Processes, Terms, and Conditions for Leas-14
ing Public Lands for Solar and Wind Energy Development 15
and Technical Changes and Corrections’’ (81 Fed. Reg. 16
92122 (December 19, 2016)). 17
SEC. 6. DISPOSITION OF REVENUES. 18
(a) D
ISPOSITION OFREVENUES.— 19
(1) A
VAILABILITY.—Except as provided in 20
paragraph (2), beginning on January 1, 2024, of 21
amounts collected from a wind or solar project as 22
bonus bids, rentals, fees, or other payments under a 23
right-of-way, permit, lease, or other authorization 24
the following shall be made available, without fur-25
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ther appropriation or fiscal year limitation, as fol-1
lows: 2
(A) Twenty-five percent shall be paid by 3
the Secretary of the Treasury to the State with-4
in the boundaries of which the revenue is de-5
rived. 6
(B) Twenty-five percent shall be paid by 7
the Secretary of the Treasury to the one or 8
more counties within the boundaries of which 9
the revenue is derived, to be allocated among 10
the counties based on the percentage of land 11
from which the revenue is derived. 12
(C) Twenty-five percent shall be deposited 13
in the Treasury and be made available to the 14
Secretary to carry out the program established 15
under this Act, including the transfer of the 16
funds by the Bureau of Land Management to 17
other Federal agencies and State agencies to fa-18
cilitate the processing of renewable energy per-19
mits on Federal land, with priority given to 20
using the amounts, to the maximum extent 21
practicable without detrimental impacts to 22
emerging markets, to expediting the issuance of 23
permits required for the development of renew-24
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able energy projects in the States from which 1
the revenues are derived. 2
(D) Twenty-five percent shall be deposited 3
in the Renewable Energy Resource Conserva-4
tion Fund established by subsection (c). 5
(2) E
XCEPTIONS.—Paragraph (1) shall not 6
apply to the following: 7
(A) Amounts collected under section 8
504(g) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-9
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1764(g)). 10
(B) Amounts deposited into the National 11
Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration 12
Fund under section 200402(b) of title 54, 13
United States Code. 14
(b) P
AYMENTS TOSTATES ANDCOUNTIES.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Amounts paid to States and 16
counties under subsection (a)(1) shall be used con-17
sistent with section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act 18
(30 U.S.C. 191). 19
(2) P
AYMENTS IN LIEU OF TAXES .—A payment 20
to a county under paragraph (1) shall be in addition 21
to a payment in lieu of taxes received by the county 22
under chapter 69 of title 31, United States Code. 23
(c) R
ENEWABLEENERGYRESOURCECONSERVATION 24
F
UND.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established in the 1
Treasury a fund to be known as the Renewable En-2
ergy Resource Conservation Fund, which shall be 3
administered by the Secretary, in consultation with 4
the Secretary of Agriculture. 5
(2) U
SE OF FUNDS.—The Secretary may make 6
amounts in the Fund available to Federal, State, 7
local, and Tribal agencies to be distributed in re-8
gions in which renewable energy projects are located 9
on Federal land. Such amounts may be used to— 10
(A) restore and protect— 11
(i) fish and wildlife habitat for af-12
fected species; 13
(ii) fish and wildlife corridors for af-14
fected species; and 15
(iii) wetlands, streams, rivers, and 16
other natural water bodies in areas af-17
fected by wind, geothermal, or solar energy 18
development; and 19
(B) preserve and improve recreational ac-20
cess to Federal land and water in an affected 21
region through an easement, right-of-way, or 22
other instrument from willing landowners for 23
the purpose of enhancing public access to exist-24
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ing Federal land and water that is inaccessible 1
or restricted. 2
(3) P
ARTNERSHIPS.—The Secretary may enter 3
into cooperative agreements with State and Tribal 4
agencies, nonprofit organizations, and other appro-5
priate entities to carry out the activities described in 6
paragraph (2). 7
(4) I
NVESTMENT OF FUND .— 8
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Amounts deposited in 9
the Fund shall earn interest in an amount de-10
termined by the Secretary of the Treasury on 11
the basis of the current average market yield on 12
outstanding marketable obligations of the 13
United States of comparable maturities. 14
(B) U
SE.—Interest earned under subpara-15
graph (A) may be expended in accordance with 16
this subsection. 17
(5) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS.—At the end of each 18
fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a report to 19
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House 20
of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 21
and Natural Resources of the Senate that includes 22
a description of— 23
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(A) the amount collected as described in 1
subsection (a), by source, during that fiscal 2
year; 3
(B) the amount and purpose of payments 4
during that fiscal year to each Federal, State, 5
local, and Tribal agency under paragraph (2); 6
and 7
(C) the amount remaining in the Fund at 8
the end of the fiscal year. 9
(6) I
NTENT OF CONGRESS .—It is the intent of 10
Congress that the revenues deposited and used in 11
the Fund shall supplement (and not supplant) an-12
nual appropriations for activities described in para-13
graph (2). 14
SEC. 7. SAVINGS. 15
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the 16
Secretary shall continue to manage public lands under the 17
principles of multiple use and sustained yield in accord-18
ance with title I of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-19
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) or the Forest 20
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 21
1974 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), as applicable, including 22
due consideration of mineral and nonrenewable energy-re-23
lated projects and other nonrenewable energy uses, for the 24
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purposes of land use planning, permit processing, and con-1
ducting environmental reviews. 2
Æ
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