Thirteen solar plants and wind farms are being returned to the earth so to speak. A million acres purchased with mostly private funds and donated to the government for safe keeping has been at issue.
It seems that the desert land was deemed to be set aside for Mojave monuments. However, in 2005 President George W. Bush declared that government lands could be used for solar plants and wind farms. The desert land at issue has been scheduled for solar and wind development. Apparently, this week Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to halt the development.
This puts saving our national lands at odds with going green. Little has been said about the pending legislation to create the Mojave monuments. No one wants to cross Senator Feinstein.
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.
At odds with Senator Feinstein is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“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 capitalfirm that invested in a solar developer called BrightSource Energy. In September, BrightSource canceled a large project in the monument area.
With a total of a million acres at issue, it would seem that a compromise could be reached. However, in the spring when an effort to negotiate with Senator Feinstein was made the mental picture of the event is without comparison. According to the New York Times
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.
Ms. Feinstein was behind the push to create Death Valley and Joshua Tree as national parks. He conservationist activities are well documented. That leads one to wonder if the necessity for alternative energy sources and power plants will be set aside in favor of preserving the national lands. It's a tough call at best.
On Thursday, Mrs. Feinstein introduced legislation to provide a 30 percent tax credit to developers that consolidate degraded private land for solar projects. She followed that on Monday with the legislation to create the 941,00-acre Mojave Trails National Monument and the 134,00-acre Sand to Snow National Monument.
“I strongly believe that conservation, renewable energy development and recreation can and must co-exist in the California desert,” Mrs. Feinstein said in a statement. “This legislation strikes a careful balance between these sometimes competing concerns.”