Bonanza Solar Project Receives FAST-41 Coverage
Contact Information
Permitting Council Press Office (media@permittting.gov)
The Permitting Council has determined that the Bonanza Solar Project is a FAST-41 covered project, effective August 13. The Bonanza project is a solar energy generating facility proposed to deliver up to 600MW of clean, renewable energy a year — enough to power approximately 90,000 homes. Renewable energy production is a key solution outlined in President Biden’s executive order to combat the climate crisis with a government-wide approach that delivers equity, well-paying union jobs, and economic growth through innovation, commercialization, and clean energy technologies, and infrastructure deployment. The administration has set a policy to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050; increase renewable energy production on public lands and in offshore waters, and facilitate a carbon pollution-free electricity sector no later than 2035.
As a FAST-41 covered project, the Bonanza project will benefit from state-of-the-art Federal project review and permitting process reforms for large-scale infrastructure projects, transparent permitting timetable development and execution, and enhanced interagency coordination.
About the Permitting Council and FAST-41
Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) and made permanent in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Permitting Council is a unique federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is comprised of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members (including deputy secretary-level designees of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation); and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The Permitting Council coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 covered projects are entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 covered projects may be in the renewable or conventional energy production, electricity transmission, energy storage, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource, broadband, pipelines, manufacturing, mining, carbon capture, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, and cybersecurity sectors. The Permitting Council also serves as a federal center for permitting excellence, supporting federal efforts to improve infrastructure permitting including and beyond FAST-41 covered projects to the extent authorized by law, including activities that promote or provide for the efficient, timely, and predictable completion of environmental reviews and authorizations for federally-authorized infrastructure projects.
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Last Updated: Friday, August 13, 2021