Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth

Los Angeles Times ^ | February 5, 2012 | By Julie Cart

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Environmentalists are torn over the high cost of breaking reliance on fossil fuels.

Industrial-scale solar development is well underway in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The federal government has furnished more public property to this cause than it has for oil and gas exploration over the last decade — 21 million acres.

In the fight against climate change, the Mojave Desert is about to take one for the team.

"I have spent my entire career thinking of myself as an advocate on behalf of public lands and acting for their protection," said Johanna Wald, a veteran environmental attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "I am now helping facilitate an activity on public lands that will have very significant environmental impacts. We are doing it because of the threat of climate change. It's not an accommodation; it's a change I had to make to respond to climate."

That unusual collaboration — along with generous federal subsidies and allotments of public land — has sparked a wholesale remodeling of the American desert.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[Bigh4u2]

Gee, do you think they did an ‘environmental impact’ study?

If they did it probably went something like this..

“It’s to save the earth? **APPROVED** “

[umgud]

So, the undesirable option is to destroy millions of acres of land to save the planet from climate change?

Should have promoted more nukes.

[Caipirabob]

Save the desert? I live here, and yes, there are truly amazing and beautiful places. We went for a long hike just yesterday in the mountains. Gorgeous!

OTOH, there are huge swaths of dead, arid land. There should be NO DEBATE on development of these areas. Nuclear, waste management or otherwise. Heck, the water table in the Mojave can be 1,000 feet like in the dead ghost town of "Santa Claus" Arizona.

What environmental impact? The only impact I've seen from the EPA types in all my years is their sheer stupidity.

[palmer]

I notice the article didn’t specify how much the “environmentalists” were paid to shut up, only that they “had a seat at the table” (dining on desert tortoise)

[Venturer]

If this wsn’t so pathetic it would be funny.

One friggin odd looking frog can stop a bridge, some tadpoles can stop them from supplying water to the San Juoquin California valleythat feeds thousands.

A turtle can stop off road recreationists from driving across the desert, but they will sacrifice millions of acres on an unproven energy that will kill everthing underneath it.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[bitterohiogunclinger]

The whole article points out that “envirionmental whackos” are perfectly content to destroy the environment as long as it's to promote something they approve of politically.
The same groups that would be screaming like banshees to prevent any other development on “sacred” ground because it might intefere with the mating habits of the desert cockroach are bullying the local chapters to remain silent.
In the end, the taxpayers will be forced to pay five times the normal rate for electricity, the “developers” will pocket billions in federal dollars, the unions will pocket their share and the plants will fall apart once the free money dries up.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

This solar thing has gotta be the biggest scam ever. Lot of money to be made - all off the back of the goobermint.

[Berlin_Freeper]

[johnny reb]

Here where I live close to Palm Springs The BLM recently allowed a company to put huge towers on pristine mountain tops to study the potential for wind turbines.This is land where if they catch you riding a motorcycle or driving your jeep they can(and will) arrest you.They flew these towers in by helicopter and erected them in one day without any notification whatsoever just BAM they were there. The local ecofreaks almost had a stroke.Some of then even had the balls to ask me to sign a petition to stop them after they literally screamed at us off road people during land use meetings. Now I'm just laughing at them.

[paintriot]

I really have no problem with the plan itself, but are the power bills from the 140,000 homes going to repay the taxpayers, or does some dem donor own the electric and solar companies and is going to reap the rewards thus trickling back to obama?

[ronnie raygun]

So it’s ok for them to sacrifice certain creatures for the good of the masses.

[Bigh4u2]

It was never about saving creatures or the earth.

It was, and always will be, about MONEY!

[Williams]

Bingo! If “Big Oil” is immoral for making money, why should we tolerate “green” companies charging MORE for the same energy? Shouldn’t they be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, the way they want doctors to work for less when they drive profit out of the health care system?

These people are evil.

[stboz]

Solar and wind cannot be relied upon until there is an efficient way to store the energy they capture.

The laws of thermodynamics are not flexible, even for ecoweenies.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Here's the part that gets me;
"The $2-billion plant....The resulting steam drives an array of turbines capable of generating 370 megawatts, enough to power roughly 140,000 homes during peak hours."

The average coal-fired power plant has a capacity of 600 MW, a new one being installed in Vietnam is expected to cost $1.2 billion.

At some point in the future we're going to wake up from this fantasy of global warming.

[CatherineofAragon]

Humans don’t have the capability to “save the Earth”, even if it happened to be necessary. But it isn’t, and it never will be. God’s plan for the Earth is clearly laid out in the Bible, and there’s no need to worry. Of course, these leftwingers worship the creation, not the Creator, so such simple truths fall on deaf ears.

[Pilated]

England is starting to fighting forced wind power. Read the February 5th article in The Telegraph “101 Tories Revolt Over Wind Farms,” By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor. They have figured out wind farms are not the answer.

[Mogollon]

We need a conservative anti-green energy legal foundation to file a law-suit against every solar, wind, proposal the left comes up with and tie up the proposed project in the courts.

Use the tactics of the left against them.