03-07-08 Published reports said the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was lifting a freeze on new solar power projects planned for public land in six Western states.
The bureau had said on May 29 that it was no longer processing new applications to build solar power plants on land it oversees in six Western states.

Federal officials said they needed first to study the environmental effects of solar energy, a process that would take two years.
But concerns that the freeze would stymie solar development led the bureau to reconsider its position.

Reports said the bureau will continue with plans to conduct a study on the environmental impacts of large-scale solar development on public land in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
Since 2005, the bureau has received more than 130 applications to build plants in those states.