A bagpipe player and belly dancer on stilts, participants of the “Burning Man” festival, cross a section of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
Mike Nelson | AFP | Getty Images
Organizers of the arts and cultural festival Burning Man and several environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the agency’s approval of a geothermal exploration project in northwestern Nevada.
The lawsuit filed in Nevada federal court on Monday alleges that the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws in 2022 when it failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of an exploration plan by developer Ormatt.
The suit alleges that the agency conducted a limited environmental review that only considered the project’s effects on Gerlach. The town has a population of only about 100 people, but serves as a gateway to the festival, which attracts 70,000 people each year.
Burning Man, which owns or operates more than 4,000 acres in the area, argued that the BLM’s approval for Ormat to develop 19 geothermal drilling exploration wells and build 2.8 miles of roads removed many potential Environmental damages are ignored.
The festival argued that eventual geothermal development would exhaust natural hot springs directly adjacent to the project site in a desert region “that otherwise does not have an abundance of water.”
The Biden administration announced a goal last year to expand the use of geothermal energy – renewable energy that comes from hot water inside the Earth – to help drive the country’s transition from planet-warming fossil fuels. The Department of Energy has said it plans to reduce the cost of geothermal power systems by 90% by 2035.