I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2301
To promote the development of renewable energy on public land, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH24, 2025
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
land, 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. DEFINITIONS. 3
In this Act: 4
(1) C
OVERED LAND.—The term ‘‘covered land’’ 5
means land that is— 6
(A) Federal land; 7
(B) not excluded from the development of 8
geothermal, solar, or wind energy under— 9
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(i) a land use plan; or 1
(ii) other Federal law; and 2
(C) not included in an area— 3
(i) that is subject to the Desert Re-4
newable Energy Conservation Plan devel-5
oped by the California Energy Commis-6
sion, the California Department of Fish 7
and Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Manage-8
ment, and the United States Fish and 9
Wildlife Service; or 10
(ii) for which the Secretary deter-11
mines existing wind and solar energy land 12
use planning meets or exceeds the stand-13
ards established under section 3. 14
(2) E
NERGY STORAGE PROJECT .—The term 15
‘‘energy storage project’’ means equipment that— 16
(A) receives, stores, and delivers energy 17
using batteries, compressed air, pumped hydro-18
power, hydrogen storage (including hydrolysis), 19
thermal energy storage, regenerative fuel cells, 20
flywheels, capacitors, superconducting magnets, 21
or other technologies identified by the Secretary 22
of Energy; and 23
(B) has a storage capacity of not less than 24
5 kilowatt hours. 25
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(3) EXCLUSION AREA.—The term ‘‘exclusion 1
area’’ means covered land that is identified by the 2
Bureau of Land Management as not suitable for de-3
velopment of renewable energy projects. 4
(4) F
EDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 5
means— 6
(A) public land; and 7
(B) National Forest System lands adminis-8
tered by the Department of Agriculture through 9
the Forest Service where the Secretary has au-10
thority to issue leases for the development and 11
utilization of geothermal resources under sec-12
tion 3 and section 15 of the Geothermal Steam 13
Act of 1970 (30 U.S.C. 1002, 1014). 14
(5) F
UND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the Re-15
newable Energy Resource Conservation Fund estab-16
lished by section 6(c)(1). 17
(6) L
AND USE PLAN .—The term ‘‘land use 18
plan’’ means— 19
(A) with respect to public land, a land use 20
plan established under the Federal Land Policy 21
and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 22
et seq.); and 23
(B) with respect to National Forest Sys-24
tem land, a land management plan approved, 25
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amended, or revised under section 6 of the For-1
est and Rangeland Renewable Resources Plan-2
ning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604). 3
(7) N
ATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM .—The term 4
‘‘National Forest System’’ has the meaning given 5
the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Range-6
land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 7
U.S.C. 1609(a)). 8
(8) P
RIORITY AREA.—The term ‘‘priority area’’ 9
means covered land identified by the land use plan-10
ning process of the Bureau of Land Management as 11
being a preferred location for a renewable energy 12
project, including an area that is identified as a des-13
ignated leasing area under the rule of the Bureau of 14
Land Management entitled ‘‘Competitive Processes, 15
Terms, and Conditions for Leasing Public Lands for 16
Solar and Wind Energy Development and Technical 17
Changes and Corrections’’ (81 Fed. Reg. 92122 18
(December 19, 2016)) (or a successor regulation). 19
(9) P
UBLIC LAND.—The term ‘‘public land’’ 20
has the meaning given the term ‘‘public lands’’ in 21
section 103 of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-22
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702). 23
(10) R
ENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT .—The 24
term ‘‘renewable energy project’’— 25
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(A) means a project carried out on covered 1
land that— 2
(i) uses wind, solar, or geothermal en-3
ergy to generate energy; or 4
(ii) transmits electricity to support 5
wind, solar, or geothermal energy genera-6
tion; and 7
(B) may include an associated energy stor-8
age project. 9
(11) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 10
means the Secretary of the Interior. 11
SEC. 2. UPDATING NATIONAL GOALS FOR RENEWABLE EN-12
ERGY PRODUCTION ON FEDERAL LAND. 13
Section 3104 of the Energy Act of 2020 (43 U.S.C. 14
3004) is amended— 15
(1) in subsection (b)— 16
(A) by striking ‘‘25’’ and inserting ‘‘60’’; 17
and 18
(B) by striking ‘‘2025’’ and inserting ‘‘De-19
cember 31, 2030’’; and 20
(2) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(c) U
PDATE.—Not later than 18 months after the 22
date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary, in con-23
sultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and the heads 24
of other relevant Federal agencies, shall update the na-25
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tional goals for renewable energy production on Federal 1
land established under subsection (a).’’. 2
SEC. 3. LAND USE PLANNING AND UPDATES TO PRO-3
GRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 4
STATEMENTS. 5
(a) P
RIORITYAREAS.— 6
(1) E
STABLISHMENT OF PRIORITY AREAS ; DES-7
IGNATION OF AREAS ELIGIBLE FOR THE SUBMISSION 8
OF RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT APPLICATIONS .— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of renew-10
able energy planning, the Secretary, consistent 11
with the requirements described in subpara-12
graph (B), shall— 13
(i) designate areas on covered land eli-14
gible for the submission of renewable en-15
ergy project applications; and 16
(ii) consider establishing priority 17
areas on covered land for renewable energy 18
projects. 19
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out ac-20
tivities under clauses (i) and (ii) of subpara-21
graph (A), the Secretary shall comply with— 22
(i) the principles of multiple use (as 23
defined in section 103 of the Federal Land 24
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Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 1
U.S.C. 1702)); and 2
(ii) the national goals for renewable 3
energy production established under sec-4
tion 3104 of the Energy Act of 2020 (43 5
U.S.C. 3004), including the minimum pro-6
duction goal described in subsection (b) of 7
that section. 8
(2) P
RIORITY FOR CERTAIN APPLICATIONS .—In 9
considering applications for renewable energy 10
projects on covered land, with respect to an applica-11
tion for a proposed renewable energy project on cov-12
ered land that is to be carried out in a priority area, 13
the Secretary shall— 14
(A) prioritize the application to be carried 15
out in any identified priority area; and 16
(B) on approval of the application, provide 17
to the applicant who submitted the application 18
the opportunity to participate in any regional 19
mitigation plan developed for the applicable pri-20
ority area. 21
(3) P
ROGRAMMATIC PLANNING .— 22
(A) S
OLAR ENERGY.—As soon as prac-23
ticable, but not later than 18 months after the 24
Record of Decision titled ‘‘Approved Record of 25
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Decision and Amendments/Record of Decision 1
for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development’’ 2
dated December 2024 was issued, the Secretary 3
shall consider establishing priority areas on cov-4
ered land for Solar energy projects in the plan-5
ning area (as defined in the Record of Deci-6
sion). 7
(B) W
IND ENERGY.—As soon as prac-8
ticable, but not later than 1 year after the date 9
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 10
initiate a review of the final programmatic En-11
vironment Impact Statement referenced in the 12
notice of availability entitled ‘‘Notice of Avail-13
ability of the Final Programmatic Environ-14
mental Impact Statement on Wind Energy De-15
velopment on BLM–Administered Lands in the 16
Western United States, Including Proposed 17
Amendments to Selected Land Use Plans’’ (70 18
Fed. Reg. 36651 (June 24, 2005)), that con-19
siders establishment of wind application and 20
priority areas on covered lands, and complete 21
that review within 3 years of issuing a notice of 22
intent. 23
(b) R
EVIEW ANDMODIFICATION.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 1
not less frequently than once every 10 years, the 2
Secretary shall— 3
(A) after an opportunity for public com-4
ment, review the adequacy of all land alloca-5
tions for renewable energy projects for the pur-6
poses of— 7
(i) encouraging and facilitating new 8
renewable energy projects; and 9
(ii) consistent with a mitigation se-10
quence of avoiding, minimizing, and com-11
pensating for adverse impacts to other 12
public uses and values of covered land, in-13
cluding— 14
(I) wildlife habitat; 15
(II) species listed as threatened 16
or endangered under the Endangered 17
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 18
et seq.); 19
(III) water resources; 20
(IV) cultural resources; 21
(V) recreational uses; 22
(VI) land with wilderness charac-23
teristics; 24
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(VII) land with special manage-1
ment designations; and 2
(VIII) areas of Tribal impor-3
tance; and 4
(B) based on the review carried out under 5
subparagraph (A), add, modify, or eliminate 6
priority areas, exclusion areas, and areas on 7
covered land open or closed to solar or wind en-8
ergy right-of-way applications or to geothermal 9
leasing. 10
(2) L
IMITATION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 11
apply to any covered land that the Secretary deter-12
mines, after seeking public input, is subject to an ex-13
isting land use plan that meets the purposes de-14
scribed in paragraph (1)(A). 15
(3) R
EPORT.—If the Secretary determines, in 16
an annual report required under subsection (g) of 17
section 3102 of the Energy Act of 2020 (43 U.S.C. 18
3002) (as redesignated by section 4(a)(1)), that the 19
national goal for renewable energy production estab-20
lished under subsection (a) of section 3104 of that 21
Act (43 U.S.C. 3004), including the minimum pro-22
duction goal established under subsection (b) of that 23
section, may not be met, the Secretary shall act 24
more frequently than otherwise required by this sec-25
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tion to designate areas eligible for the submission of 1
renewable energy project applications and establish 2
additional priority areas for renewable energy 3
projects. 4
(c) C
OMPLIANCEWITH THENATIONALENVIRON-5
MENTALPOLICYACT OF1969.—For purposes of this sec-6
tion, compliance with the National Environmental Policy 7
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall be accom-8
plished— 9
(1) for geothermal energy— 10
(A) by updating the document entitled 11
‘‘Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 12
Statement for Geothermal Leasing in the West-13
ern United States’’ and dated October 2008; 14
and 15
(B) by incorporating into the updated doc-16
ument under subparagraph (A) any additional 17
regional analyses completed by Federal agencies 18
after the date on which the document described 19
in that subparagraph was finalized; 20
(2) for solar energy— 21
(A) by updating the document entitled 22
‘‘Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 23
Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Develop-24
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ment in Six Southwestern States’’ and dated 1
July 2012; and 2
(B) by incorporating into the updated doc-3
ument under subparagraph (A) any additional 4
regional analyses completed by Federal agencies 5
after the date on which the document described 6
in that subparagraph was finalized; and 7
(3) for wind energy— 8
(A) by updating the document entitled 9
‘‘Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 10
Statement on Wind Energy Development on 11
BLM–Administered Lands in the Western 12
United States’’ and dated June 2005; and 13
(B) by incorporating into the updated doc-14
ument under subparagraph (A) any additional 15
regional analyses completed by Federal agencies 16
after the date on which the document described 17
in that subparagraph was finalized. 18
(d) N
OEFFECT ONPROCESSINGSITE-SPECIFICAP-19
PLICATIONS.—Nothing in this section modifies any re-20
quirement to conduct site-specific environmental reviews 21
or process permits for proposed renewable energy projects 22
during preparation of an updated programmatic environ-23
mental impact statement, land use plan, or amendment 24
to a land use plan. 25
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(e) COORDINATION.—In developing any update re-1
quired under this section, the Secretary shall coordinate, 2
on an ongoing basis, with appropriate State, Tribal, and 3
local governments, transmission infrastructure owners, op-4
erators, and developers, renewable energy developers, and 5
other appropriate entities to ensure that priority areas es-6
tablished by the Secretary under this section take into ac-7
count— 8
(1) economic viability (including having access 9
to existing or planned transmission lines); 10
(2) consistency with a mitigation sequence to 11
avoid, minimize, and compensate for impacts to— 12
(A) fish, wildlife, or plants; 13
(B) fish, wildlife, or plant habitat; 14
(C) recreational uses; 15
(D) land with wilderness characteristics; 16
(E) land with special management designa-17
tions; 18
(F) cultural resources; 19
(G) areas of Tribal importance; and 20
(H) other uses of covered land; 21
(3) feasibility of siting on previously disturbed 22
land, including commercial and industrial land, mine 23
land, and previously contaminated sites; and 24
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(4) consistency with section 202 of the Federal 1
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 2
U.S.C. 1712), including subsection (c)(9) of that 3
section (43 U.S.C. 1712(c)(9)). 4
(f) T
RANSMISSION.—In carrying out this section, the 5
Secretary shall— 6
(1) determine whether adequate transmission 7
exists for renewable energy projects on covered land; 8
and 9
(2) if a determination is made in the negative 10
under paragraph (1), in coordination with the heads 11
of other relevant Federal agencies, review existing 12
land use plans to determine if amendments to those 13
land use plans would be appropriate to support ade-14
quate transmission capability. 15
(g) I
NCENTIVES FORRENEWABLEENERGYDEVEL-16
OPMENT INPRIORITYAREAS.—The Secretary may estab-17
lish, by regulation, incentives to be provided to individuals 18
carrying out renewable energy projects in priority areas 19
established under this section. 20
SEC. 4. IMPROVING WIND AND SOLAR ENERGY PROJECT 21
PERMITTING. 22
(a) R
OLE OFRENEWABLEENERGYCOORDINATION 23
O
FFICES.—Section 3102 of the Energy Act of 2020 (43 24
U.S.C. 3002) is amended— 25
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(1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as 1
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and 2
(2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(e) P
ROCESSING OFWIND ANDSOLARENERGYAP-5
PLICATIONS.— 6
‘‘(1) D
ELEGATION TO STATE RENEWABLE EN -7
ERGY COORDINATION OFFICES .— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 9
other provision of law, the Secretary may dele-10
gate to a State Renewable Energy Coordination 11
Office the authority to process applications for 12
eligible projects proposed to be carried out on 13
land managed by the Bureau of Land Manage-14
ment in the applicable State. 15
‘‘(B) R
OLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF 16
MANAGERS.—For purposes of processing appli-17
cations described in subparagraph (A), the 18
manager of the applicable State Renewable En-19
ergy Coordination Office— 20
‘‘(i) shall have the authority to issue 21
grants or leases for eligible projects; 22
‘‘(ii) with the approval of the State 23
Director of the applicable Bureau of Land 24
Management State Office, may use other 25
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employees in field and district offices of 1
the applicable Bureau of Land Manage-2
ment State Office, or hire additional ex-3
perts, to assist with timely processing of 4
applications, with the costs of hiring addi-5
tional experts to be charged to applicants; 6
and 7
‘‘(iii) shall report to the State Direc-8
tor of the applicable Bureau of Land Man-9
agement State Office. 10
‘‘(2) P
ROHIBITION OF DELEGATION TO EM -11
PLOYEES OF FIELD OR DISTRICT OFFICES .—Except 12
as provided in paragraph (1)(B)(ii), the Secretary 13
may not delegate to employees of field or district of-14
fices of the Bureau of Land Management the au-15
thority to process applications for eligible projects 16
proposed to be carried out on land managed by the 17
Bureau of Land Management.’’. 18
(b) C
OSTRECOVERYAGREEMENTS.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after 20
the date on which an applicant submits a complete 21
application for a right-of-way for a wind or solar en-22
ergy project, including submission of the filing fee 23
required under section 2804.12 of title 43, Code of 24
Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation), the 25
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Secretary shall provide a cost recovery agreement 1
with respect to the application. 2
(2) E
FFECT.—Issuance of a cost recovery 3
agreement under paragraph (1) and payment of cost 4
recovery fees shall preclude any new claims to the 5
use of the applicable covered land during any period 6
in which the application is active. 7
(3) C
ONFLICTS; STUDIES.— 8
(A) C
ONFLICTS.—To be considered com-9
plete under paragraph (1), an application de-10
scribed in that paragraph shall address any 11
known conflicts with respect to the use of the 12
applicable covered land, as identified in sci-13
entific literature or other studies. 14
(B) A
DDITIONAL STUDIES .—Additional 15
studies shall not be required for purposes of 16
considering an application to be complete under 17
paragraph (1). 18
(c) E
NVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS.— 19
(1) N
OTICE OF INTENT.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 21
days after the date on which the agency notifies 22
the applicant that the application to establish a 23
right-of-way is complete, or a later date to be 24
established by the Secretary under subpara-25
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graph (B), if an environmental impact state-1
ment is determined to be necessary, the Sec-2
retary shall issue a notice of intent to prepare 3
an environmental impact statement with respect 4
to the application. 5
(B) E
XTENSION.—The Secretary shall es-6
tablish a later date by which the notice under 7
subparagraph (A) shall be issued, if the Sec-8
retary determines that the 180-day period 9
under that paragraph should be extended due 10
to— 11
(i) the application being considered a 12
low priority under section 2804.35 of title 13
43, Code of Federal Regulations (or a suc-14
cessor regulation); 15
(ii) project-specific circumstances, in-16
cluding the need for further studies, mak-17
ing the 180-day deadline insufficient; or 18
(iii) the application not meeting the 19
requirements for approval. 20
(2) C
ATEGORICAL EXCLUSION .—As the Sec-21
retary determines to be appropriate, the Secretary 22
may promulgate regulations providing that prelimi-23
nary geotechnical work and meteorological moni-24
toring relating to renewable energy projects shall be 25
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categorically excluded from the requirements for an 1
environmental assessment or environmental impact 2
statement under section 1501.4 of title 40, Code of 3
Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation). 4
(d) P
ROCESSINGPRIORITY.—In processing applica-5
tions described in subsection (b)(1), the Secretary shall— 6
(1) give priority to applications for renewable 7
energy projects in priority areas; and 8
(2) process applications for renewable energy 9
projects in areas that are not priority areas in the 10
order in which the applications are received. 11
(e) U
SE OFCOMPETITIVEPROCESS.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 13
the Secretary shall not use a competitive process for 14
the review of an application described in subsection 15
(b)(1), except— 16
(A) in a case in which 2 or more appli-17
cants file an application for the same site (or 18
portions of the same site) not more than 15 19
days apart; or 20
(B) as otherwise established by the Sec-21
retary through a subsequent rulemaking process 22
delineating the instances in which the Secretary 23
will use the competitive process. 24
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(2) LIMITATION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 1
apply to applications for competitive right-of-way 2
leases in priority areas. 3
SEC. 5. INCREASING ECONOMIC CERTAINTY. 4
(a) R
ENTS ANDFEES.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In determining rental rates 6
and other fees for renewable energy project leases or 7
right-of-way grants, the Secretary shall ensure that 8
the total rental rates and other fees charged do not 9
exceed the average amount charged for similar ac-10
tivities on private land in the State or county in 11
which the rental rates and other fees are charged. 12
(2) I
NDIVIDUAL APPRAISALS NOT REQUIRED .— 13
For purposes of determining rental rates for renew-14
able energy projects, the Secretary— 15
(A) shall not be required to conduct indi-16
vidual appraisals; and 17
(B) may use average cash rents included in 18
the Pastureland Rents Survey prepared by the 19
National Agricultural Statistics Service, as de-20
termined for the 5-year period ending on the 21
date on which the rental rate is determined. 22
(3) I
NCREASES IN BASE RENTAL RATES .—After 23
a base rental rate is established for a lease or right- 24
of-way grant authorization for a renewable energy 25
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project, any increase in the base rental rate shall be 1
limited to the Implicit Price Deflator-Gross Product 2
Index published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis 3
of the Department of Commerce on the date of 4
issuance of the lease or right-of way grant author-5
ization. 6
(4) C
APACITY FEES.—The Secretary may con-7
sider charging a capacity fee for a renewable energy 8
project only if the Secretary determines that capac-9
ity fees are charged within the region or State in 10
which the renewable energy project is carried out, as 11
part of leaseholds on State or private land. 12
(b) B
ONDS.—The Secretary shall adopt a process for 13
establishing bond requirements for decommissioning re-14
newable energy projects that— 15
(1) do not establish a minimum per acre 16
amount; and 17
(2) are based on the difference between— 18
(A) the estimated, site-specific net costs of 19
reclamation of the covered land; and 20
(B) the salvage value of materials available 21
after decommissioning the renewable energy 22
project. 23
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SEC. 6. DISPOSITION OF REVENUES; RENEWABLE ENERGY 1
RESOURCE CONSERVATION FUND. 2
(a) D
ISPOSITION OFREVENUES.— 3
(1) A
VAILABILITY.—Except as provided in 4
paragraph (3), without further appropriation or fis-5
cal year limitation, of amounts collected from wind 6
and solar energy projects as bonus bids, rentals, 7
fees, or other payments under a right-of-way, per-8
mit, lease, or other authorization— 9
(A) for the period beginning on January 1, 10
2026, and ending on December 31, 2045— 11
(i) 25 percent shall be paid by the 12
Secretary of the Treasury to the State 13
within the boundaries of which the revenue 14
is derived; 15
(ii) 25 percent shall be paid by the 16
Secretary of the Treasury to the 1 or more 17
counties within the boundaries of which 18
the revenue is derived, to be allocated 19
among the counties based on the percent-20
age of land from which the revenue is de-21
rived; 22
(iii) 15 percent shall be deposited in 23
the Treasury and credited to the Bureau of 24
Land Management’s Renewable Energy 25
Management account to be made available 26
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to the Secretary to carry out sections 3 1
and 4 (including amendments made by 2
those sections), including the transfer of 3
the funds by the Bureau of Land Manage-4
ment to other Federal agencies and State 5
agencies to facilitate the processing of per-6
mits for renewable energy projects, with 7
priority given to using the amounts, to the 8
maximum extent practicable, without detri-9
mental impacts to emerging markets, expe-10
diting the issuance of permits required for 11
the development of wind and solar energy 12
projects in the States from which the reve-13
nues are derived; and 14
(iv) 35 percent shall be deposited in 15
the Fund; and 16
(B) beginning on January 1, 2046— 17
(i) 25 percent shall be paid by the 18
Secretary of the Treasury to the State 19
within the boundaries of which the revenue 20
is derived; 21
(ii) 25 percent shall be paid by the 22
Secretary of the Treasury to the 1 or more 23
counties within the boundaries of which 24
the revenue is derived, to be allocated 25
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among the counties based on the percent-1
age of land from which the revenue is de-2
rived; 3
(iii) 10 percent shall be deposited in 4
the Treasury and be made available to the 5
Secretary to carry out sections 3 and 4 6
(including amendments made by those sec-7
tions), including the transfer of the funds 8
by the Bureau of Land Management to 9
other Federal agencies and State agencies 10
to facilitate the processing of permits for 11
wind and solar energy projects, with pri-12
ority given to using the amounts, to the 13
maximum extent practicable, without detri-14
mental impacts to emerging markets, expe-15
diting the issuance of permits required for 16
the development of renewable energy 17
projects in the States from which the reve-18
nues are derived; and 19
(iv) 40 percent shall be deposited in 20
the Fund. 21
(2) R
ULE FOR PROJECTS LOCATED IN MUL -22
TIPLE STATES.—Not later than 180 days after the 23
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 24
issue a proposed rule establishing a formula for the 25
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disposition of revenues under subparagraphs (A)(i) 1
and (B)(i) of paragraph (1) in a case in which a 2
wind and solar energy project is located in more 3
than 1 State. 4
(3) F
ILING FEES.—With respect to wind and 5
solar energy projects— 6
(A) paragraph (1) does not apply to 7
amounts collected from application filing fees 8
authorized under section 304 of the Federal 9
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 10
U.S.C. 1734); and 11
(B) such application filing fees may be re-12
tained by the applicable agency to recover costs 13
associated with issuing the right-of-way, permit, 14
or other authorization associated with the appli-15
cation. 16
(b) P
AYMENTS TOSTATES ANDCOUNTIES.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Amounts paid to States and 18
counties under subsection (a)(1) shall be used con-19
sistent with section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act 20
(30 U.S.C. 191). 21
(2) P
AYMENTS IN LIEU OF TAXES .—A payment 22
to a county under subparagraph (A)(ii) or (B)(ii) of 23
subsection (a)(1) shall be in addition to a payment 24
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in lieu of taxes received by the county under chapter 1
69 of title 31, United States Code. 2
(c) R
ENEWABLEENERGYRESOURCECONSERVATION 3
F
UND.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is established in the 5
Treasury a fund, to be known as the ‘‘Renewable 6
Energy Resource Conservation Fund’’, which shall 7
be administered by the Secretary. 8
(2) U
SE OF FUNDS.— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may 10
make amounts in the Fund available to Fed-11
eral, State, local, and Tribal agencies for dis-12
tribution in regions in which renewable energy 13
projects are located on Federal land, for the 14
purposes described in subparagraph (B). 15
(B) P
URPOSES.—The purposes referred to 16
in subparagraph (A) are— 17
(i) restoring and protecting— 18
(I) fish and wildlife habitat for 19
species affected by renewable energy 20
projects; 21
(II) fish and wildlife corridors for 22
species affected by renewable energy 23
projects; and 24
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(III) wetlands, streams, rivers, 1
and other natural water bodies in 2
areas affected by renewable energy 3
projects; and 4
(ii) preserving and improving rec-5
reational access to Federal land and water 6
in the applicable region through an ease-7
ment, right-of-way, or other instrument 8
from willing landowners for the purpose of 9
enhancing public access to existing Federal 10
land and water that is inaccessible or re-11
stricted due to renewable energy projects. 12
(3) C
OOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS .—The Sec-13
retary may enter into cooperative agreements with 14
State and Tribal agencies, nonprofit organizations, 15
and other appropriate entities to carry out the ac-16
tivities described in paragraph (2). 17
(4) I
NVESTMENT OF FUND .— 18
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Any amounts deposited 19
in the Fund shall earn interest in an amount 20
determined by the Secretary of the Treasury on 21
the basis of the current average market yield on 22
outstanding marketable obligations of the 23
United States of comparable maturities. 24
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(B) USE.—Any interest earned under sub-1
paragraph (A) may be deposited into the Fund 2
and used without further appropriation. 3
(5) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS.—At the end of each 4
fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit to the Com-5
mittee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Sen-6
ate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the 7
House of Representatives a report identifying— 8
(A) the amounts described in subsection 9
(a) that were collected during that fiscal year, 10
organized by source; 11
(B) the amount and purpose of payments 12
made to each Federal, State, local, and Tribal 13
agency under paragraph (2) during that fiscal 14
year; and 15
(C) the amount remaining in the Fund at 16
the end of the fiscal year. 17
(6) I
NTENT OF CONGRESS .—It is the intent of 18
Congress that the revenues deposited and expended 19
from the Fund shall supplement (and not supplant) 20
annual appropriations for activities described in 21
paragraph (2). 22
SEC. 7. SAVINGS CLAUSE. 23
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the 24
Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture shall continue 25
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to manage public land under the principles of multiple use 1
and sustained yield in accordance with title I of the Fed-2
eral Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 3
1701 et seq.) or the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-4
sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.), 5
as applicable, for the purposes of land use planning, per-6
mit processing, and conducting environmental reviews. 7
Æ
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