Plan divvies up desert for conservation, energy projects

The long-awaited blueprint finalized by the U.S. Interior Department after a yearslong process seeks to balance renewable energy development and species protection on 17,000 square miles (44,030 sq. kilometers) of desert managed by the federal government.

Home to the threatened desert tortoise, bighorn sheep and other animals, its vastness and ample sunshine make it an attractive hotspot for sprawling solar, wind and geothermal plants.

The tension between the renewable energy industry and conservation groups was highlighted in the development of the Ivanpah solar plant, which opened in 2014 on roughly 5 square miles (13 sq. kilometers) of federal land near the California-Nevada border.

[...] the developers spent more than $20 million to relocate the animals.

President Barack Obama has called on the Interior Department to approve renewable energy projects that generate 20,000 megawatts of power on public land by 2020.

Since 2009, the department has signed off on 59 large-scale renewable energy projects on federal land in the West including 35 solar plants, 11 wind farms and 13 geothermal projects.