The timing no doubt was coincidence, but while Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was celebrating the country's largest solar project in California, two U.S. senators were introducing legislation to protect desert landscapes in the state.
The irony wasn't lost on the National Parks Conservation Association, which has questioned the location of the solar farm.
“There is a lot of celebrating today in the California desert. Senator Feinstein released the California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act and Sally Jewell flipped the on-switch at Desert Sunlight Solar plant. The confluence of these events highlights the important work that remains to be done in the California desert," said David Lamfrom, NPCA's California Desert associate director. "That includes permanently protecting some of the most beautiful and vibrant lands in America and the continued need to do a better job of siting renewable energy away from species-rich lands. Considering how important our national parks and protected lands are to our desert economy, finding this balance now is fundamental.”
Earlier Monday, the Interior secretary and the director of the Bureau of Land Management Neil Kornze joined California state and industry leaders to “flip the switch” on the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm. Now operating at full capacity, the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is providing 550 megawatts of electricity to the grid, enough energy to power 160,000 average homes. The facility is estimated to displace 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year – the equivalent to taking 60,000 cars off the road.
“Solar projects like Desert Sunlight are helping to create American jobs, develop domestic renewable energy and cut carbon pollution,” said Secretary Jewell. “I applaud the project proponents for their vision and entrepreneurial spirit to build this solar project and commend Governor Brown for implementing policies that take action on climate change and help move our nation toward a renewable energy future.”
Desert Sunlight is the sixth solar project approved on public lands that is now operational. Together with wind, solar and geothermal, the renewable energy projects built on public lands since 2009 are producing over 2,200 megawatts of power, or enough to power almost 700,000 average homes. An additional 2,500 megawatts is currently under construction, including eight solar projects in California and Nevada.
Desert Sunlight is located on about 4,100 acres managed by the BLM in Riverside County, about 70 miles east of Palm Springs and six miles north of the rural community of Desert Center. The facility uses more than eight million First Solar photovoltaic modules to generate power with no air emissions, no waste production and no water use. The thin film technology has the smallest carbon footprint of any photovoltaic technology. The renewable energy is sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison under long-term contracts.
As part of the Interior Department’s commitment to responsible development of renewable energy, the Desert Sunlight project underwent extensive environmental review and mitigation. The BLM worked in close coordination with Desert Sunlight, the National Park Service and other stakeholders to significantly reduce the proposed project’s total footprint down from the proposed 19,000 acres. The BLM is requiring that Desert Sunlight provide funding for acquisition and enhancement of more than 7,500 acres of suitable habitat for desert tortoise and other sensitive wildlife species to help mitigate the project’s potential impacts.
Also on Monday, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both California Democrats, introduced legislation that would expand by 75,000 acres the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks.
“This piece of legislation is the final chapter in a long effort to preserve one of the most magnificent landscapes in the United States,” Sen. Feinstein said. “We must ensure that critical parts of the California desert—with its mountain vistas, bighorn sheep, mule deer, desert tortoises, Joshua trees, Native American petroglyphs and much more—will be protected for all time.”
Comments
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/28/opinion/kohn-how-kochs-should-spend-their-...
Should the Koch brothers want to use the money they've set aside for political giving, along with money to be contributed by like-minded people, actually to help the American people -- and the rest of the world -- instead of influencing election outcomes for their singular bottom line, here is what $889 million can buy:
• 559,119,496 meals for the homeless -- equal to 916 meals for every homeless person in America for one year;
•19,525 new teachers for New York City public school students -- or 24,170 new teachers in Birmingham, Alabama, where first-year teachers are paid less;
• 15,180 entry-level psychologists at Veterans Administration hospitals, helping and healing servicemen and women all across the country;
• Clean water for 29,633,333 people around the globe;
• Give all $889 million to Save Darfur, to help 3 million people displaced in refugee camps and as a belated wedding present for George and Amal Clooney;
• Create 222 endowed Ayn Rand chairs of economics, politics and greed at Harvard University (I'm just joking -- also Harvard doesn't need money.);
• 1,781,563 iPads, to increase technology access and learning for children in school districts bankrupted by tax cuts;
• 7,408,333 goats to provide milk and meat to rural families all across the world;
• 88,900,000 football pumps, perhaps all of which we should send to the New England Patriots;
• 5,229 new single-axle snowplow trucks (just sayin');
• One year's supply of birth control pills for 1,481,666 women;
• 437,931,034 gallons of gas at today's low prices, helping millions of low-income families afford to get to work and school;
• Pay off New Jersey's entire fiscal year 2014 budget gap resulting from Gov. Chris Christie's magical accounting -- and have $89 million left over;
• 34,297,839 mosquito nets, to help reduce incidents of malaria, which kills an estimated 500,000 people each year -- mostly children;
Or, finally, instead of hiding in the shadows of dark-money organizations gambling $889 million to try and buy our elections, the Koch brothers could be more direct. They and their fellow conservative donors could give $1,201 each to 740,043 voters in Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin -- swing states that Obama won in 2012, but only by a 740,043 total margin. Yes, that would be buying votes. But isn't that what they are already trying to do?
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One thing that happens with cutting edge technology is it starts out way more expensive because of the research and development. Wind and solar started out way less efficiant than it is today. And the technology is still advancing. It usually costs more to the first buyers of new cutting edge ideas but over the long term those first buyers are needed to help fund the growth in the technology. Although there are lots of fossil fuel in the world and may last far into the future, they are finite resources while wind and solar are not.
I am not close to cutting off my use of fossil fuels. But I am willing to buy more efficiant products and better insulated homes and ultimately try and use some alternative power. I think for many of us, thats the direction we feel is needed. Whether the gov't helps in directing us down the path is a worthy debate. My vote is probably in favor but how much we can afford to spend is the real issue. Things like solar and wind may take 10 years or so to break even, so it is an investment in the future savings. Some of these will be obsolete in 10 years, so who knows.
You could say the same thing about the NEA, SEIU, ACTBlue, American Federation of State, County and municiple employess, food workers union, electrical union ........
The one difference is that the Koch brothers do give to eleeomosynary causes - and they are giving their own money not money they have extorted from others.
The cost of rooftop solar varies widely depending on where you are. In CA, after the 30% rebate, your initial investment will produce energy at an average cost of $0.09 to $0.10 per KWh over 20 years. If you borrow money to pay for it, and therefore take into account the time cost of money, it's probably 16 to 18c a KWh.
And it's dropping. So, it's quite competitive with our current electricity providers.
Now, if you're in a northern state with lots of cheap hydro electric, it'll never pan out.
More evidence that the scientists are not telling the truth. As some have said on this site the earth is not getting warmer and no need to consider solar versus coal, oil, and gas.
The World Meteorological Organization reported on Monday that 2014 was the hottest year in a historical record of global temperature dating from 1880. That finding confirms an announcement made last month by two American scientific agencies and one in Japan.
The Geneva-based agency noted, however, that 2014 was warmer than some other recent years by only a few hundredths of a degree, within the error margin of global temperature measurements. That effectively means that 2014, 2010 and 2005 are in a statistical tie. A British group that tracks global temperatures recently cited the uncertainty in declining to name 2014 as the warmest year.
The World Meteorological Organization, the weather and climate arm of the United Nations, also pointed out that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record had all occurred in the 21st century, with 1998 being the only exception. “The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year,” the secretary general of the agency, Michel Jarraud, said in a statement.
Alfred Runte is correct when he says that we are all trapped by the SYSTEM. Now what can we do about it?
For one thing, we can make efforts to become informed and to learn the truth.
For another, we can try to persuade others to join us.
That's what we're doing here, if you stop to think about it. Unfortunately, there are many who choose to listen only to their own preconceived opinions and seek an echo chamber in which they may join others in cacophanous shouts.
We are trapped in the SYSTEM. What about using wisdom to change the system?
I find it ironic that many of my friends count me as a conservative person. Perhaps it's because many other conservatives have moved so far to the right that I'm now in left field. But I'm one of those old fashioned conservatives who still believes in the ideals expressed in the GOP's 1956 party platform as reported by Jim Hightower:
http://jimhightower.com/node/8535#.VN1vcy6rE2M
My, how things change!
Yes how? What do you see in that platform that is to the left of today's GOP? If anything, today's GOP is far less conservative (for the worse).
Here's what one rather conservative fact checker says:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/oct/28/facebook-...