Posted on 10/19/2009 12:57:30 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Reporting from El Centro, Calif. - Across the desert flatlands of southeastern California, dozens of companies have flooded federal offices with applications to place solar mirrors on more than a million acres of public land.
But just as some of those projects appear headed toward fruition, environmental hurdles threaten to jeopardize efforts to further tap the region's renewable energy potential.
The development of solar-power facilities in the desert has been a top priority of the Obama administration as it seeks to ease the nation's dependence on fossil fuels and curb global warming. In addition, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has urged that the state meet one-third of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020.
Companies are racing to finalize their permits and break ground by the end of next year, which would qualify them to obtain some of the $15 billion in federal stimulus funds designated for renewable energy projects. At stake is the creation of 48,000 jobs and more than 5,300 megawatts of new energy, enough to power almost 1.8 million homes, according to federal land managers.
But the presence of sensitive habitat, rare plants and imperiled creatures such as desert tortoises, bighorn sheep and flat-tailed horned lizards threatens to stall or derail some of the projects closest to securing permits.
"There are significant environmental issues involved in the California gold rush-like scenario unfolding in the desert," said Peter Galvin, conservation director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "We are not going to just roll over when critical wild lands and last habitats of endangered species are in the mix."
Beyond the environmental issues is a bureaucratic one: State and federal regulatory agencies are hobbled by mandatory work furloughs and a lack of experience in processing utility-scale renewable energy project applications.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
NIMBY ...
Worked for nukes, works for everything. Once the trend is established.
Environmental concerns developed solar and environmental concerns stop solar.
Geez, is CA still suppose to fall in to the ocean?
Get on with it!
It’s sublimely ironic that tens of thousands of square miles of desert land in the southwest may be used for “green energy” projects — yet, ANWR remains locked up, to preserve under 10 sq miles of tundra.
The party that favors Abortion takes that concept of stop anything before it grows and has applied it to everything since Roy V Wade.
Name a Nuke Plant or Refinery since then.....
It truly is it's nexus/lexus.
With this mentality, will we get a Natural Gas car fleet? A fleet of Hybrids, Gaseous with Nuclear Reactors for charging at night? Thorium Reactors? The list could go on and on....
Stop it before it grows....
1. Vote the idiots out, take over the state with conservatives--build utilities, drill offshore, turn the water back on for farmers.
2. Exit the state and let those remaining find a good place to sit, fold their hands and wait for the end. That will allow the whole state to be available to animals, insects, fish, etc.
vaudine
Let’s face it, no energy production is the real goal here.
These groups were all started by marxists, and only the mentally ill are still clinging to them out of concern for Gia.
The communists were absolutely brilliant, in their ability to tap into the neural flaws of the human being. They got willing vegetables to connect to silly causes like a neural network, and pretty soon they were self-sustaining.
I doubt the commies had to even stick around.
They planted the seed, and ‘the faithful’ became the self-sustaining plants, self-replicating from generation to generation.
Lessee. A desert environment. Lots of sun. The critters expect it.
I wonder what happens when many square miles no longer receive sunlight? It must be horrible to the flora and fauna used to intense solar radiation.
The same radicals who go nuts when a neighbor wants to cut down a tree have no problem with fundamentally ruining the environment they claim they wish to preserve.
Am I supposed to act surprised? Not! When I first saw the stories about developing the mirror farms, I called this everntuality.
I was part of a company that developed a process to recycle 100% of the ash residue from Waste To Energy Incinerators. To our amazement, the biggest problem we had was the environmentalists coming up with all kinds of false claims of dire side effects.
It was the same people who were screaming about the land fills created to dispose of the same material. It was then I learned the “dirty” secret about these groups. They only care about having issues to raise money to create more issues to generate more money to create more issues to raise money.
How dare anyone use technology to create a solution to one of their issues.
But the presence of sensitive habitat, rare plants and imperiled creatures such as desert tortoises, bighorn sheep and flat-tailed horned lizards threatens to stall or derail some of the projects closest to securing permits.
Save the Spotted Horny Toad!!!
Build More Nukes!!!
I choose one. I sure wish some of my fellow like minded patriots had stuck around to make taking the state back easier though.
California has too much potential to just abandon it.
It would be taken over by our enemies, and be used to attack the remaining parts of the U.S. from.
Retreat is a habit. No way!
That should tell you something.
It's mostly just a scam, used to gain power.
Vote the idiots out, take over the state with conservatives—build utilities, drill offshore, turn the water back on for farmers.
That would require a thought process - a process liberals don’t have.
The communists were absolutely brilliant, in their ability to tap into the neural flaws of the human being. They got willing vegetables to connect to silly causes like a neural network, and pretty soon they were self-sustaining.
—
I wish that fit in a tagline or a bumper sticker. :-)
Apt dessciption re: seed.
Need to eliminate/neuter the Enviros first.
Second...get rid of NObama.
I guess CO2 as a cause of global warming is not part of these folks’ beliefs.
Yes, I agree, that would make a decent bumper sticker, if you could shorten it.
If only we could find a way to deprogram these people.
No religion has a firmer hold on their true believers than that of almighty Gaia. I may be off base, but I believe that to be the fictional entity, the spirit of the earth.
It has spawned a movement of left wing fruits and nuts that are just mentally ill.
Nakita, you and your boys deserve some kind of global recognition for this brilliant example of mind control.
I believe the solar plants involve lots of water as the technology is solar thermal. Water is scarce in the dessert obviously. PV technology does not provide the energy storage that solar thermal provides. It seems odd that proponents of solar thermal did not think about the obvious environmental challenges.
We live in a world without tradeoffs. Environmentalists are the fifth branch of government, granted standing to litigate as third parties. Unfortunately California desperately needs the power from these projects. Otherwise, I would not have any sympathy for solar thermal promoters.
the cumulative effect of this stuff is going to make Sarah Palin look awfully good four years from now.
...politically, I mean. Because she always looks good....
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