U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar and California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. have signed an agreement that aims to expand a state and federal partnership that has, over the last two years, paved the way for the development of more than 130 renewable energy projects in California.
The partnership, launched in 2009, works through a senior-level renewable energy policy group to expedite the review and processing of proposed renewable energy projects.
This new agreement broadens the state and federal partnership to formally include transmission projects and bring in new partners, including the California Independent System Operator, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California State Lands Commission. The agreement also renews a mutual commitment to landscape-level planning efforts, the DOI says.
"Now that our successful partnership has demonstrated that advancing renewable energy projects in California can be done, and can done in the right way, it is essential to ensure that transmission facilities to get this power to market are also part of the equation," Salazar says. "As part of today's agreement, which will expand our partnership on renewable energy, [the Department of the] Interior and California will identify needed transmission projects to track, troubleshoot and shepherd."
