Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 221 / Friday, November 15, 2024 / Notices 90311 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[BLM_HQ_FRN_MO4500183156] 

Notice of Availability of the Proposed 

Resource Management Plan 

Amendment and Final Environmental 

Impact Statement for Greater SageGrouse Rangewide Planning 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: In compliance with the 

National Environmental Policy Act of 

1969, as amended, and the Federal Land 

Policy and Management Act of 1976, as 

amended, the Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) has prepared a 

Proposed Resource Management Plan 

Amendment (RMPA) and Final 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 

for the Greater Sage-Grouse Rangewide 

Planning and by this notice is 

announcing the start of a 30-day protest 

period of the Proposed RMPA to the 

BLM Director. 

DATES: This notice announces the 

beginning of a 30-day protest period to 

the BLM on the Proposed RMPA. 

Protests must be postmarked or 

electronically submitted on the BLM’s 

ePlanning site within 30 days of the 

date that the Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) publishes its Notice of 

Availability (NOA) in the Federal 

Register. The EPA usually publishes its 

NOAs on Fridays. 

ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMPA, Final 

EIS, and associated documents are 

available on the BLM ePlanning project 

website at: https://eplanning.blm.gov/ 

eplanning-ui/project/2016719/510. 

Documents pertinent to this proposal 

may also be examined at the BLM State 

Offices in California, Colorado, Idaho, 

Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and 

Wyoming. 

Instructions for filing a protest with 

the BLM for the Greater Sage-Grouse 

Rangewide Planning can be found at: 

https://www.blm.gov/programs/ 

planning-and-nepa/publicparticipation/filing-a-plan-protest and 

at 43 CFR 1610.5–2. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pat 

Deibert, BLM National Sage-Grouse 

Conservation Coordinator; telephone: 

720–447–8107; address: 5353 

Yellowstone Road, Cheyenne, WY 

82009; email: BLM_HQ_GRSG_

Planning@blm.gov. Individuals in the 

United States who are deaf, deafblind, 

hard of hearing, or have a speech 

disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or 

TeleBraille) to access 

telecommunications relay services for 

contacting Dr. Deibert. Individuals 

outside the United States should use the 

relay services offered within their 

country to make international calls to 

the point-of-contact in the United 

States. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

RMPA would change goals, objectives, 

and management from previous 

planning efforts in 77 land use plans to 

enhance Greater sage-grouse (GRSG) 

conservation through management of 

sagebrush habitats on BLMadministered lands. The planning area 

includes portions of 10 Western states 

with GRSG habitat: California, Colorado, 

Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, 

Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and 

Wyoming, and encompasses nearly 121 

million acres of BLM-administered 

public lands. Because this effort is 

focused on GRSG habitat management, 

decisions resulting from this 

amendment effort could affect up to 69 

million acres of BLM-administered 

lands associated with the applicable 

GRSG habitat management areas. No 

decisions are being made on National 

Forest System lands or the underlying 

Federal mineral estate as part of this 

process. 

This RMPA builds on existing RMP 

direction related to GRSG conservation 

that was established in earlier planning 

efforts. The 2015 GRSG RMPA amended 

or revised RMPs in the planning area to 

provide for GRSG conservation on 

public lands. In the 2019 GRSG RMPAs, 

the BLM amended some of the 2015 

GRSG plan decisions in the states of 

California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, 

Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. On 

October 16, 2019, the United States 

District Court for the District of Idaho 

preliminarily enjoined the BLM from 

implementing the 2019 GRSG RMPAs 

(Case No. 1:16–CV–83–BLW). 

The BLM’s purpose and need is to 

amend certain 2015 and 2019 GRSG 

RMPA goals, objectives, allocations, and 

management actions in order to respond 

to updated scientific information and 

changing land uses and provide for 

consistent and effective rangewide 

conservation based on biological 

information that is responsive to locally 

relevant habitat variability. These were 

selected based on an internal review of 

the effectiveness of 2015 and 2019 

RMPA decisions and the degree to 

which those decisions sufficiently and 

appropriately addressed existing threats 

to GRSG habitats and continued 

population declines, while balancing 

the BLM’s ability to manage public 

lands for other uses, and were 

additionally informed by updated 

scientific findings and feedback 

received from Tribal, Federal, state, and 

local agencies and the public. All goals, 

objectives, or decisions from the 2015 or 

2019 RMPAs that are not being 

considered for amendment would 

remain in place. 

In preparing the Proposed RMPA, the 

BLM analyzed six alternatives in detail, 

including the No Action Alternative. 

Alternative 1 includes the applicable 

elements (goals, objectives, and 

management direction) of the 2015 

GRSG amendment efforts. Alternative 2, 

the No Action Alternative, includes the 

applicable RMP elements from the 2019 

GRSG amendment effort. Alternative 3 

emphasizes GRSG conservation and 

protection and has the highest amount 

of preservation measures of the 

alternatives and includes the 

identification of Areas of Critical 

Environmental Concern (ACECs). 

Alternative 4 emphasizes conservation 

while providing more allowances for 

public land uses than Alternative 3 and 

adjusts GRSG habitat management areas 

based on new information and science 

available since the previous planning 

efforts. Alternative 5, identified as the 

Preferred Alternative in the Draft RMPA 

and EIS, balances conservation with 

increased levels of site-specific 

allowances for public land uses and 

aligns habitat management areas with 

new information and science. 

Alternative 6 applies all the same 

habitat management areas and 

associated management as Alternative 5 

but includes the identification of 

ACECs. 

Public review of the Draft RMPA and 

EIS began on March 15, 2024, and 

ended on June 13, 2024. During the 90- 

day comment period, the BLM held 13 

public meetings, including two virtual 

meetings and 11 in-person meetings 

throughout the planning area. Over 

38,000 submissions were received, 

including about 6,000 individual 

comments. Major comment themes 

included management direction for 

renewable energy, lands and realty 

actions, fluid minerals, livestock grazing 

and predation, and the RMPA processes 

for mitigation, disturbance caps, and 

adaptive management. Comments 

received on the Draft RMPA and EIS 

were considered and addressed in the 

Proposed RMPA and Final EIS. In 

response to public and cooperating 

comments and internal review of the 

alternatives and effects described in the 

Draft EIS, the BLM developed the 

Proposed RMPA. The Proposed RMPA 

increases protections for GRSG from the 

Preferred Alternative while maintaining 

an appropriate balance of public land 

uses. The Proposed RMPA incorporates 


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90312 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 221 / Friday, November 15, 2024 / Notices 

management direction approaches from 

all of the alternatives analyzed in the 

Draft RMPA and EIS. Specifically, 

priority habitat management areas 

(PHMA) are identified as exclusion for 

solar and wind energy. PHMA remains 

an avoidance area for major rights-ofway, but there are fewer allowable 

exceptions for development. A subset of 

PHMA requiring additional protections 

has been identified as PHMA with 

Limited Exceptions, which would be 

managed as exclusion areas for major 

rights-of-way, with no exceptions to the 

solar and wind exclusion allocation or 

to the no surface occupancy allocation 

for fluid minerals. These additional 

protections will provide the necessary 

protections for GRSG habitat given 

anticipated development threats and 

negative impacts from climate change 

while also ensuring an appropriate 

balance of public land uses. 

Protest of the Proposed RMP 

Amendment 

The BLM planning regulations state 

that any person who participated in the 

preparation of the RMP and has an 

interest which will or might be 

adversely affected by approval of the 

Proposed RMPA may protest its 

approval to the BLM. Protest on the 

Proposed RMPA constitutes the final 

opportunity for administrative review of 

the proposed land use planning 

decisions prior to the BLM adopting an 

approved RMPA. Instructions for filing 

a protest with the BLM regarding the 

Proposed RMPA may be found online 

(see ADDRESSES). All protests must be in 

writing and mailed to the appropriate 

address found on the protest web page 

or submitted electronically through the 

BLM ePlanning project website (see 

ADDRESSES). Protests submitted 

electronically by any means other than 

the ePlanning project website will be 

invalid unless a hard copy of the protest 

is also submitted. The BLM will render 

a written decision on each protest. The 

protest decision of the BLM shall be the 

final decision of the Department of the 

Interior. Responses to valid protest 

issues will be compiled and 

documented in a Protest Resolution 

Report made available following the 

protest resolution online at: https://

www.blm.gov/programs/planning-andnepa/public-participation/protestresolution-reports. Upon resolution of 

protests, the BLM will issue seven statespecific Records of Decision and 

Approved RMPAs. 

Before including your phone number, 

email address, or other personal 

identifying information in your protest, 

you should be aware that your entire 

protest—including your personal 

identifying information—may be made 

publicly available at any time. While 

you can ask us in your protest to 

withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10 

(2023), 43 CFR 1610.2; 43 CFR 1610.5) 

Sharif Branham, 

Assistant Director for Resources and 

Planning. 

[FR Doc. 2024–26483 Filed 11–14–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4331–27–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[BLM_NV_FRN_MO4500182346] 

Notice of Availability of the Draft 

Resource Management Plan 

Amendment and Environmental Impact 

Statement for the Purple Sage Energy 

Center Project in Clark County, NV 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: In compliance with the 

National Environmental Policy Act of 

1969, as amended (NEPA), and the 

Federal Land Policy and Management 

Act of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 

prepared a Draft Resource Management 

Plan (RMP) Amendment and Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 

for the Purple Sage Energy Center 

Project (Project) and by this notice is 

providing information announcing the 

opening of the comment period on the 

Draft RMP Amendment/EIS. The Purple 

Sage Energy Project was formerly 

known as the Golden Currant Solar 

Project. 

DATES: This notice announces the 

opening of a 90-day comment period for 

the Draft RMP Amendment/EIS 

beginning with the date following the 

Environmental Protection Agency’s 

(EPA) publication of its Notice of 

Availability (NOA) in the Federal 

Register. The EPA usually publishes its 

NOAs on Fridays. 

To afford the BLM the opportunity to 

consider comments on the Draft RMP 

Amendment/EIS, please ensure your 

comments are received prior to the close 

of the 90-day comment period or 15 

days after the last public meeting, 

whichever is later. 

The BLM will be holding one inperson public meeting and one virtual 

public meeting during the public 

comment period. 

• In-Person Meeting 

—Date and Time: January 14, 2025, 6 

p.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific Standard 

Time (PST) 

—Location: Pahrump Nugget Hotel 

and Casino, 681 NV Highway 160, 

Pahrump, Nevada 89048 

• Virtual Meeting 

—Date and Time: January 16, 2025, 6 

p.m. to 8 p.m. PST 

—Registration information: https://

eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ 

project/2021533/510. 

Details on public meetings and 

pertinent documents will be provided 

on the National NEPA Register project 

website: https://eplanning.blm.gov/ 

eplanning-ui/project/2021533/510. 

ADDRESSES: The Draft RMP 

Amendment/EIS is available for review 

on the BLM National NEPA Register 

project website at https://eplanning.

blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021533/ 

510. Additionally, a copy of the Draft 

RMP Amendment/EIS is physically 

available at the following locations: 

• BLM Southern Nevada District Office, 

Las Vegas Field Office, 4701 N Torrey 

Pines Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada 89130 

• Pahrump Community Library, 701 

East Street, Pahrump, Nevada 89408 

• Tecopa Branch Library, 408 Tecopa 

Hot Springs Road, Tecopa, California 

92389 

Written comments related to the Draft 

RMP Amendment/EIS for the Purple 

Sage Energy Center Project may be 

submitted by any of the following 

methods: 

• Website: https://eplanning.blm.gov/ 

eplanning-ui/project/2021533/510. 

• Email: BLM_NV_SND_

EnergyProjects@blm.gov. 

• Mail: BLM Las Vegas Field Office, 

Attn: Purple Sage Energy Center Project, 

4701 N Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, 

Nevada 89130. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jessica Headen, Project Manager, 

telephone (702) 515–5206; address 4701 

N Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, 

Nevada 89130; email BLM_NV_SND_

EnergyProjects@blm.gov. Individuals in 

the United States who are deaf, 

deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a 

speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, 

TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 

telecommunications relay services for 

contacting Jessica Headen. Individuals 

outside the United States should use the 

relay services offered within their 

country to make international calls to 

the point-of-contact in the United 

States. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

document provides notice that the BLM 

has prepared a Draft RMP Amendment/ 


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