The Department of Interior has just approved a proposed 3 gigawatt wind power project in Wyoming, and with it passed the Obama administration goal of 10,000 megawatt of renewable energy authorized on public lands.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said:
When President Obama took office, he made expanding production of American made energy a priority, including making our nation a world leader in harnessing renewable energy. Tapping the vast renewable energy resources on our nation's public lands will create jobs while supporting a clean energy future. President Obama challenged us in his State of the Union address to authorize 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy on our public lands by the end of the year-enough to meet the needs of more than 3 million homes-and today we are making good on that promise.
In addition to the just-announced wind farm, renewable energy projects approved by Interior include 18 utility-scale solar power projects, 7 wind power projects, and 8 geothermal power plants.
The Wyoming project just approved, is the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre project, consisting of two separate sites over nearly 220,000 acres of land, located near Rawlins, Wyoming. The 1000 turbine project is expected to employ 1000 people during construction and 114 people when the project is fully operational.