The plan presents six alternative approaches for meeting renewable energy and conservation goals through 2040. Each alternative proposes a different conservation design and configuration of lands available for streamlined renewable energy permitting. The plan also includes an analysis of the potential environmental impacts of these alternatives.

The DRECP consists of three major planning components:

• A federal BLM Land Use Plan Amendment (LUPA) covering nearly 10 million acres of BLM-administered lands. The LUPA is a set of decisions that establishes management direction for BLM-administered land through amendment to existing land use plans.

• A General Conservation Plan (GCP) covering nearly 5.5 million acres of nonfederal lands. The GCP provides a programmatic framework for streamlining the incidental take permitting process under the Endangered Species Act for renewable energy and transmission on nonfederal lands. The DRECP includes incidental take permit applications from the CEC and California State Lands Commission (CSLC).

• A Conceptual Plan-Wide Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP) that encompasses the entire DRECP Plan Area includes a Conceptual Plan-Wide NCCP Reserve Design and describes a regional strategy for the protection of plants, animals, and their habitats. The NCCP also addresses renewable energy and transmission Covered Activities and, through a focused NCCP Reserve Design and other conservation actions, provides for the conservation and management of Covered Species at a scale commensurate with the scale of the impacts that will result from Covered Activities.

The draft plan has three key components that support the goals of the DRECP:

• The BLM’s Land Use Plan Amendments would designate renewable energy development areas and promote conservation of wildlife, cultural, and recreational values in other areas, including by expanding National Conservation Lands, across the 10 million acres of public lands in the planning area.

• The FWS’s General Conservation Plan would allow the FWS to streamline the permitting process for renewable energy applicants on non-federal lands that agree to comply with the terms and conditions of the General Conservation Plan.

• CDFW’s Natural Community Conservation Plan would identify and provide for the regional or area-wide protection of plants, animals, and their habitats, while allowing compatible and appropriate economic activity.

The public will have through 9 January 2015 to provide additional comments on the draft plan, which includes lands in Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

The draft Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) is the result of an extensive public participation process, which included collaboration among the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), California Energy Commission (CEC) and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and other stakeholders.

The DRECP planning process began in late 2008, building from California’s earlier experience with the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, which for the first time incorporated land-use planning into the statewide planning process for electric transmission facilities.