Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar kicks off three day trip to Arizona and California

  Salazar will spotlight job creation through clean energy

 

WASHINGTON, DC - On Wednesday, January 11, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will kick-off a three-day trip to Arizona and California where he will spotlight the job-creating impacts of a clean energy economy and the economic benefits behind tourism and conservation of our nation’s public lands and urban waterways.

 

In Arizona, Secretary Salazar will tour the site of a solar power plant that is under construction in Gila Bend.  Abengoa’s Solana Generating Station is expected to create over 1,600 jobs during peak construction and generate 280 megawatts when completed, or enough to power 70,000 homes.  Salazar will meet with workers on site and take a first-hand look at Abengoa’s unique solar storage technology.  Following the site visit, Salazar will hold a stakeholder meeting with business and energy stakeholders in Phoenix to discuss how to unlock clean energy jobs throughout Arizona.

 

In California, Salazar will join Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday to celebrate the selection of the Los Angeles River Watershed which has been identified twice as a priority project for the Obama administration under the President’s America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) initiative and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP).  Both initiatives seek to reconnect Americans to the great outdoors and revitalize urban waterways in underserved communities across the country.

 

On Friday, Salazar will join Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in Elk Grove to announce an agreement between the State of California and Interior to advance the state’s and nation’s renewable energy goals and create clean energy jobs. The event will be held in Elk Grove, the site of a Recurrent Energy solar energy project.  Recurrent Energy’s four Sacramento-area projects are expected to generate 160 million kWh of electricity in year one, which is roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of 12,000 average American homes.  

 

Salazar will wrap up his Western job swing with a visit to Fort Ord in California with Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Bob Abbey.  A former military base located on the Monterey Peninsula, Fort Ord offers over 86 miles of public trails and welcomes 100,000 visitors a year.  During the visit Salazar, Hayes, and Abbey will learn about ongoing efforts to enhance conservation and recreation opportunities in the area.