Utah sage grouse plan blocks wind and solar development across 5.4 million acres, still allows geothermal

Utah sage grouse plan blocks wind and solar across 5.4 million acres

The Utah sage grouse plan blocks wind and solar development across the highest conservation zone the state now sets for the greater sage grouse, a ground dwelling bird known for a mating display called a lek. That zone covers 5.4 million acres of public land, according to Utah News Dispatch, source 1. The Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that decides how public land can be used, finalized the plan on 22 December 2025 as part of a wider revision covering 8 western states. Inside the 5.4 million acre zone, the plan still allows geothermal energy, power drawn from heat stored underground, and other fluid mineral leasing, under what the plan calls major stipulations, added conditions meant to limit harm, along with increased permit requirements, though the plan does not state by how much those requirements increased.

Bill Groffy, the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, source 3, described what he believes healthy public land does for the region.

Healthy sagebrush country powers our communities, sustains wildlife and supports the economies that make the West strong.

Bill Groffy, acting director, Bureau of Land Management. Source 3.

What the plan still allows, and what critics say it removes

A further 1.6 million acres in Utah is classed as seasonal habitat, land the bird uses only part of the year, according to Utah News Dispatch, source 1. The Center for Biological Diversity, a national conservation group, contends the same plan removes protections from 4.3 million acres of what it calls prime sage grouse habitat in Utah, a claim also carried by Utah News Dispatch, source 1. The plan is issued under Executive Order 14154, an order titled Unleashing American Energy, which the Bureau of Land Management names in its own press release as the basis for the decision, source 3.

National decline behind the new line drawn in Utah

The line drawn in Utah sits inside a bigger national decline. The greater sage grouse population has fallen nearly 80% since 1968, and the population today is roughly 1.3% of the approximately 16 million birds that once ranged across 297 million acres of sagebrush habitat, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, source 5. A separate United States Geological Survey finding, also cited in that release, says most breeding sites have a 50% chance of disappearing within roughly the next 6 decades if conditions do not change.

Reactions split between energy access and habitat loss

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a hunting and conservation group, welcomed the same plan, source 4.

We hope the completion of these plans ends the roller coaster cycle of planning so that state and federal agency resources can be spent on what is most important.

Madeleine West, vice president of Western conservation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Source 4.

The Center for Biological Diversity and several other groups sued the Bureau of Land Management on 2 March 2026 over the same plan, source 5. Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist and executive director of the Western Watersheds Project, one of the groups that sued, said what he thinks the agency is doing.

After a decade of tepid sage grouse protections, now the Bureau of Land Management is completely abandoning its responsibility to manage commercial activities in sage grouse habitats.

Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist and executive director, Western Watersheds Project. Source 5.

Utah drew a specific, checkable line, wind and solar excluded, geothermal allowed with conditions, on a named acreage, rather than the blanket rollback described in the wider multi state fight over the same plan.