California Senator Blocks Solar Plant to Protect Desert - Polidicks

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/business/energy-environment/22solar.html[/url] [quote]AMBOY, Calif. — Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region. But before the bill to create two new Mojave national monuments has even had its first hearing, the California Democrat has largely achieved her aim. Regardless of the legislation’s fate, her opposition means that few if any power plants are likely to be built in the monument area, a complication in California’s effort to achieve its aggressive goals for renewable energy. Developers of the projects have already postponed several proposals or abandoned them entirely. The California agency charged with planning a renewable energy transmission grid has rerouted proposed power lines to avoid the monument. “The very existence of the monument proposal has certainly chilled development within its boundaries,” said Karen Douglas, chairwoman of the California Energy Commission. For Mrs. Feinstein, creation of the Mojave national monuments would make good on a promise by the government a decade ago to protect desert land donated by an environmental group that had acquired the property from the Catellus Development Corporation. “The Catellus lands were purchased with nearly $45 million in private funds and $18 million in federal funds and donated to the federal government for the purpose of conservation, and that commitment must be upheld. Period,” Mrs. Feinstein said in a statement. The federal government made a competing commitment in 2005, though, when President George W. Bush ordered that renewable energy production be accelerated on public lands, including the Catellus holdings. The Obama administration is trying to balance conservation demands with its goal of radically increasing solar and wind generation by identifying areas suitable for large-scale projects across the West. Mrs. Feinstein heads the Senate subcommittee that oversees the budget of the Interior Department, giving her substantial clout over that agency, which manages the government’s landholdings. Her intervention in the Mojave means it will be more difficult for California utilities to achieve a goal, set by the state, of obtaining a third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020; projects in the monument area could have supplied a substantial portion of that power. “This is arguably the best solar land in the world, and Senator Feinstein shouldn’t be allowed to take this land off the table without a proper and scientific environmental review,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist and a partner with a venture capital firm that invested in a solar developer called BrightSource Energy. In September, BrightSource canceled a large project in the monument area. Union officials, power industry executives, regulators and some environmentalists have also expressed concern about the impact of the monument legislation, but few would speak publicly for fear of antagonizing one of California’s most powerful politicians. The debate over the monument encapsulates a rising tension between two goals held by environmental groups: preservation of wild lands and ambitious efforts to combat global warming. Not only is the desert land some of the sunniest in the country, and thus suitable for large-scale power production, it is also some of the most scenic territory in the West. The Mojave lands have sweeping vistas of an ancient landscape that is home to desert tortoises, bighorn sheep, fringe-toed lizards and other rare animals and plants. As conflicts over building solar farms in the Mojave escalated earlier this year, Mrs. Feinstein trekked to the desert in April. The senator’s caravan, including the heads of two of the nation’s largest utilities, top energy regulators and a group of environmentalists, bumped along a dirt track and pulled up to a wind-whipped tent. Inside, executives with a Goldman Sachs-owned developer waited to make their case for building two multibillion-dollar solar power plants. The presentation over, the entourage rolled on to the next solar project site to hear the developer’s pitch. Mrs. Feinstein gave the developers a hearing but was not moved by their arguments, according to five people present on the tour. The senator seemed concerned about the visual effect of huge solar farms on Route 66, the highway that runs through the Mojave, they said. “When we attended the onsite desert meeting with Senator Feinstein, it was clear she was very serious about this,” said Gary Palo, vice president for development with Cogentrix Energy, a solar developer owned by Goldman Sachs. “It would make no sense for us politically or practically to go forward with those projects.” Another project, a huge 12,000-acre solar farm by Tessera Solar, was canceled last week, and the company cited Mrs. Feinstein’s opposition. Steven L. Kline, chief sustainability officer for Pacific Gas and Electric, called the proposed monument “prime territory” for solar development and noted that the loss of the planned solar projects would hurt his company’s efforts to comply with state renewable energy mandates. The utility was planning a solar farm in the monument area.[/quote] I'm all for protecting the rainforest... but the [i]desert?[/i] It's better than building it in the fucking everglades at least.

It's a great idea but I don't really understand what the problem is.

cocks in the ass

It's a double-sided arguement that you really can't decide on either end of it. There are the preservationists, wanting to keep the desert lands untouched, because many rare creatures live in the California deserts. Then there are the natural energy supporters, wanting to turn the desert into a solar farm.

I love it when environmentalists start fighting over each other over this stuff. Hey since y'all still can't decide over where to put your renewable energy sources, can we go ahead and drill off our coast before China steals it all?

Heh, denying permission for environment-saving technology to save the environment.

Kind of off-topic, but why is the FEDERAL government voting on this? Why doesn't the California state government decide, beside the fact that they're completely broke.

I'm pretty sure that it'd be better to lose a few desert creatures, rather than the whole earth turn into a giant oven...?

But I'm not sure why somebody in New York gets to decide that they want a solar plant in a state on the other side of the country. Borked my automerge.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is gonna beat his ass

Would it be possible to use Death Valley as a Solar farm? I mean really, what creatures actually live there?

Nuclear energy. Get into it. These problems would be averted.

[QUOTE=TAU!;19119800]Would it be possible to use Death Valley as a Solar farm? I mean really, what creatures actually live there?[/QUOTE] Just because it's called "Death" Valley doesn't mean it's uninhabitable. [url]http://www.nps.gov/deva/naturescience/animals.htm[/url]

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;19119845]Nuclear energy. Get into it. These problems would be averted.[/QUOTE] Not really, then you're just left with tons and tons of dangerously radioactive waste that won't be safe for 10,000 years. Fusion, on the other hand, would solve all our problems and output nothing but helium.

The oil companies are to blame!

Or we could just burn "clean" coal, buy paper bags, pretend to be "green" and prevent the desert from getting harmed, all the while the worlds forests get cut down, everything gets polluted, the world economy goes into shambles, the money becomes worthless, the oil runs out, while we sit here, pretend to help by saving tortoises and driving hybrids and not using plastic bags when really it amounts to stuck up imbeciles who accomplish absolutely [B]jack shit[/B] by pretending that if they use bag paper bags it "helps the environment". Yeah right. You want to fix it? Get them to automatically recycle all the shit that usually gets thrown out such as rotting food, tires and broken scrap metal, rather than just burn it and throw it on the ground. You aren't helping by using paper bags and telling people to ban reusable or clean energy reserves..

[QUOTE=TAU!;19119800]Would it be possible to use Death Valley as a Solar farm? I mean really, what creatures actually live there?[/QUOTE] Dust bunnies and salamanders.

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;19119940]Not really, then you're just left with tons and tons of dangerously radioactive waste that won't be safe for 10,000 years. Fusion, on the other hand, would solve all our problems and output nothing but helium.[/QUOTE] A history channel report says that we'll be able to use fusion within the next 100 years.

put a fucking crapload of solar panels in the grand canyon

Make sense to me. Kidding, no it doesn't. What the fuck

She fears that doing so will make her mean.

contrary to popular belief, deserts house a thriving ecosystem. I can see why she stopped the building plan.

Come on, California. Are you not satisfied with neutering performance automobiles, contributing to environmental pollution by promoting hybrids and generally being a pain in the year? A few poles stabbed in the ground are not going to ruin the desert ecosystem. The snakes, scorpions and the like will just nest around them as if they were cacti.

[QUOTE=TestECull;19121936] A few poles stabbed in the ground are not going to ruin the desert ecosystem. The snakes, scorpions and the like will just nest around them as if they were cacti.[/QUOTE] they don't just stick them into the ground, they're not lawn flamingoes. They have to tear up huge amounts of earth to lay the foundation and electrical cables.

Technically he has the right idea, everytime humans build something anywhere we affect nature. Every single thing has an effect to some degree, but seriously its the fucking desert who gives a shit?

The fucking desert...? I don't even understand why the hell this person is opposing it for--? [I][B]FDSGAGFASGGFGASDFDOESNOTCOMPUTEGDAGSFHDGARQRSFDARDRQDF[/B][/I]

Oh God. Reptiles live in the desert. This politician is vehemently trying to protect the desert. :siren:[highlight][b]THE REPTILIANS HAVE INFILTRATED THE CALIFORNIA SENATE[/b][/highlight]:siren: Also 2012

[QUOTE=Zeke129;19126795]Oh God. Reptiles live in the desert. This politician is vehemently trying to protect the desert. :siren:[highlight][b]THE REPTILIANS HAVE INFILTRATED THE CALIFORNIA SENATE[/b][/highlight]:siren: Also 2012[/QUOTE] Congrats youve just unknowingly started a new addition to an old conspiracy, youve doomed us all.

You can't really do anything anymore without somehow effecting the environment.

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;19126922]You can't really do anything anymore without somehow effecting the environment.[/QUOTE] Technically you never could. :engleft: