The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has expanded the scope of potential solar development on federal lands, opening several more western states to gigawatts of PV deployment. In January 2024, the Dept. of the Interior issued an update for the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, also known as the Western Solar Plan, which formalized the processes for building solar on federal land west of the Rocky Mountains. The Western Solar Plan was published in 2012 and initially opened designated federal land in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico to solar development. This latest update to the plan expands federal land in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming to solar development, as well.