By Andrea Lang, Policy Analyst
As of last summer, only one utility-scale wind project had been completed on
Indian land, and no utility-scale solar projects had been installed. This is
compared with over 600 utility-scale wind projects and over 700 utility-scale
solar projects that have been completed nation-wide. Given the myriad benefits
of renewable development for tribes explained in Part II of this series, why is tribal land so underdeveloped? This week, Part
III of this series on tribes and renewables explores the role of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) in hindering tribal renewable development, and suggests
some solutions for overcoming this barrier.
About a year ago, the Government Accountability Office issued a report on Indian
Energy Development broadly, finding that a number of factors contribute to the
underdevelopment of energy resources on tribal land. The most important reason
for the lack of energy development on tribal land has to do with the
complicated relationship between tribes and the federal government. In order for
tribes to lease their land, create easements, and conduct cultural and
environmental studies and surveys, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) must
review and approve tribal decisions. According to the report, this extra step
in decision-making over development on tribal lands significantly hinders
renewable energy development.
The GAO report highlights a number of examples in which
tribes waited years for the BIA to review and approve leases and other
agreements, often getting approval only after repeated calls and letters urging
the BIA to act. These delays cause significant problems for renewable energy
projects. For one, it creates a lot of uncertainty about the future of such
projects, a factor that can make investors less willing to finance the project.
Besides impeding the ability to obtain financing, delays can also cause other
agreements to laps. For example, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota waited 18 months for the BIA to review a wind energy project lease, a delay that caused
the loss of the project’s interconnection agreement.
So what is the
hold-up, and how can approval of renewable projects on tribal land be
streamlined to make such projects easier to develop?
The most apparent solution is to address the problems at the
BIA that have led to the delays. According to the GAO report, many BIA offices
do not have staff with sufficient expertise to evaluate and approve
energy-related leases and other agreements. In addition, the BIA lacks a system
for keeping track of its review and response process. Thus, the solution to the
BIA’s delay issues would likely require providing more money to that agency to
hire more qualified staff and to implement a record-keeping system.
An alternative option is to cut the BIA out of the process
and let tribes make such decisions themselves. Congress has already enacted one
mechanism for removing the need for BIA approval—the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act. That law allowed
tribes to enter into “Tribal Energy Resource Agreements” (TERAs) with the
Secretary of Interior, which allow tribes to make decisions without the need to
obtain BIA approval. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the law has been on
the books for over ten years, not a single tribe has obtained a TERA, and only
six have even begun the process of trying to obtain one. The GAO report
explores the reasons why tribes have been disinterested in TERAs, namely
because tribes lack the funding needed to carry out the review on their own. Presumably,
if the BIA did not have to review all projects on tribal land, it would save
resources. Thus, the regulations governing TERAs could be altered to provide
tribes with those saved resources to remedy the tribes’ concerns about lack of
funding.
While the BIA approval process is a significant barrier to
renewable development, it is not the only one. Next week’s post in this series
will explore some of the other barriers to renewable development on tribal
land.
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