Monday, May 22, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Over the past decade, Nevada has seen the reality of the climate crisis firsthand: a longer and more severe wildfire season that destroys precious wildlife habitat and threatens Nevada’s crown jewels like Lake Tahoe and Mt. Charleston; atmospheric rivers that flood our communities even as we face unprecedented droughts. Lake Mead is lower than ever before, endangering our ability to provide water for Southern Nevada and clean and affordable power from Hoover Dam. The climate crisis isn’t something in the distant future — it isn’t something that just our grandkids will face — it is happening right now, and it is getting worse by the year.
Thankfully, our U.S. senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, worked with President Joe Biden and their colleagues in the House and Senate to provide billions of dollars for the creation of clean energy projects that help Nevada and the nation transition to a net-zero carbon economy. Bringing these resources into our state and community will create thousands of high-quality careers, reduce energy costs and build a clean energy economy that protects our present and our future.
However, there remains a major obstacle to actualizing these dollars into real-world clean energy projects: an outdated federal permitting process. Over 87% of Nevada land is public and managed by the federal government. Most of our opportunities to produce clean energy and to grow and diversify our economy in this state are on these public lands.
The permitting process for energy infrastructure projects is complex, lengthy and overly burdensome, leading to unnecessary delays and increased costs. Every delay in bringing clean energy online is additional carbon pollution emitted into our atmosphere, which makes combating climate change even harder. Moreover, these delays increase costs and hinder the development of critical energy projects, including renewable energy installations and transmission lines, which are essential for meeting our energy needs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Reforming this permitting process is critical — and Nevada has a record of doing that.
Starting in 2017 through May of 2021, Arevia Power worked with the previous administration, the Bureau of Land Management (Department of Interior or DOI), the Moapa Band of Paiutes, as well as state officials and clean energy stakeholders, to develop the 690 MW, 1.5 GWh Gemini solar+storage project. Specifically, Gemini received its environmental approvals from DOI in May 2020 with assistance of a helpful federal regulatory framework called Fast 41. This framework prioritizes infrastructure projects of national importance, emphasizes environmental protection and streamlines the permitting process by bringing all participating agencies involved in the process under one schedule.
Last year, I returned to the private sector and joined Arevia Power to continue this advocacy and help bring this comprehensive approach to projects nationally.
By prioritizing environmental protection, streamlining the permitting process and improving collaboration between agencies, we can ensure that these critical projects can move forward in a timely and cost-effective manner. The time for action is now, and we must work together to implement permitting reform and transition our state and nation to a clean energy future. Our nation’s security and our state’s economy depend on it.
Former state Sen. Chris Brooks is executive vice president of External Relations for Arevia Power and has over 30 years of experience in the energy and utility industry.
