Nevada: Proposed Changes for Managing Sage Grouse Could Open up More Areas for Geothermal Energy Development

Feds release sage grouse plan for Nevada, proposing changes to loosen Obama-era rules (The Nevada Independent)

 (Courtesy The Nevada Independent)

The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed changes to how Nevada manages sage grouse, a stately bird that has come to symbolize a larger dispute between environmentalists and extractive industries over how to balance conservation and development on public lands.

The draft environmental impact statement calls for more flexibility to update the framework for Nevada and more case-by-case exceptions to sage grouse rules, granting greater authority to the state director for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for managing nearly 70 percent of all the land in Nevada. The changes would also remove a special habitat designation that limited some mining and geothermal development on certain lands marked as sage grouse habitat.

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will be exhibiting at the GRC Annual Meeting & Expo, 14-17 October at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino, Reno, Nevada, USA.