Friday, May 30, 2008

Feds announce programmatic review of solar in the Mojave

The unprecedented deluge of industrial solar energy proposals for the Mojave Desert is bringing a response from the Federal government with the announcement of a programmatic review and analysis:

As part of its ongoing efforts to increase domestic energy production and ensure greater energy security, the Bureau of Land Management has initiated a joint programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) with the Department of Energy (DOE) to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts associated with solar energy development on BLM-managed public land in six western States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

[snip...]

During work on the PEIS, the BLM will focus attention on the 125 applications already received for rights-of-way for solar energy development, while deferring new applications until after completion of the PEIS. The 125 existing applications are for land covering almost one million acres and with the potential to generate 70 billion watts of electricity, or enough to power 20 million average American homes. The PEIS will establish a process for accepting future applications, possibly through a competitive prcess, which is likely to attract companies with the experience and resources necessary to quickly deploy solar energy projects.

Related:

AZCentral.com looks at how giant companies like Chevron, Goldman Sachs, and PG&E are now heading into the Mojave with industrial solar thermal proposals with bets the technology will be economically competitive with coal within another decade.

The BLM/California Desert District' Solar Energy web page includes tables and maps of current solar proposals for the Mojave Desert.

Go Solar California! is a site of the Public Utilities Commission and Energy Commission that "provides consumers a 'one-stop shop' for information on rebates, tax credits, and incentives for solar energy systems in California."

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Super WalMart hearing continued to June 25

The Yucca Valley Town Council has continued the hearing on the Super WalMart proposal because, as explained by yesterday's Hi-Desert Star:
[N]ew information came to light in the form of California Environmental Quality Act findings delivered to the Town offices that the council members were unable to fully review before the meeting.The Town’s planning consultant, Nicole Criste, prefaced her staff report with the recommendation that the council study the new materials and continue the Wal-Mart Supercenter discussion at a special meeting next month.The public is invited to attend, and take part in, this continuing process of review. Next month’s meeting will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, in the Yucca Room of the community center.

MBCA will have more information on this matter very soon.

For more background on the Super WalMart proposal, see previous posts on WalMart.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Desert Report: Renewable Energy Issue

The March issue of the Desert Report, published by the California/Nevada Desert Committee of the Sierra Club, is focused on Renewable Energy and includes articles on:
  • Renewable Energy Transmission: "Let's Build Only What Is Absolutely Necessary"
  • "Big Solar" - Solution or Threat?
  • Coal-fired Power Plants in Nevada
  • Life in a Newly Solar Electric Home
  • "The New California Gold Rush": Historic land protections and the rush to energy industrialization

These and other articles are available for viewing on-line as a PDF. Find the link at desertreport.org.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Yucca Valley sewage and water

The Hi-Desert Star covers last Wednesday's meeting of the Hi-Desert Water District Board of Directors and an update on the progress of the waste-reclamation plant design, as well as other water issues.

Director Wade White continued to express concerns about future water supplies and suggested a workshop with the Mojave Water Agency on the subject. Director Sheldon Hough disagreed with White’s continuing efforts to extract long-term contracts from MWA, saying, “There is never going to be a guarantee of water.”

Read the rest here.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Water page of the MBCA Website. Related blog posts: Water, Yucca Valley.

Coverage of Congressional candidates forum, 41st District

"Morongo Basin residents met and questioned three of four Democratic candidates hoping to challenge the incumbent, Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, for the 41st Congressional District seat at a candidates’ forum on Sunday, May 18 at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center."

Learn more about the candidates in Desert Trail coverage here.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Yucca Valley Town Council Votes on Wal-Mart Environmental Impact Report (EIR) - May 22, 2008

Dear MBCA Members and Friends,

Please attend the Yucca Valley Town Council meeting on Thursday, May 22, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. when the Town Council votes on the Wal-Mart Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

Conservationists fault the EIR for being incomplete, out-of-date and subjecting local businesses to ruin.

In addition, big-box stores like Wal-Mart are contrary to the Town General Plan that specifies the protection of the Town's rural character.

Please attend this meeting and let your voice be heard.

For more information:

Categories: WalMart, Yucca Valley

Yucca Valley Town Council Agenda 5/22/08: http://www.yucca-valley.org/pdf/mam/Town_Council/Agendas/2008/2008_05_22_towncouncil_agenda.pdf
(Note: download time for dialup is about 45 minutes)

Hi-Desert Star Article 5/21/08: http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2008/05/21/news/news3.txt

Wal-Mart Watch: http://www.walmartwatch.com/

Sincerely,

David Fick
MBCA President

"Drilling for Defeat?"

The Mojave, faced with a deluge of industrial solar proposals as well as the Green Path North transmission project, is not alone in facing threats from the energy landrush. Pushback on increased oil and gas drilling and exploration supported by the 2005 Energy Policy Act is growing throughout the Western rural states, according to this NY Times piece by David Sirota:

[T]he acceleration of energy exploration has split the national Republican Party from local Republicans upset by the downsides of the energy boom. “Republicans created a monster for themselves,” said Rick Ridder, a Colorado-based Democratic consultant. “They put public policy in direct conflict with their base voters.”

In Wyoming’s Upper North Platte Valley, Jeb Steward, a Republican state representative, helped lead the successful 2007 opposition to the B.L.M.’s proposed sale of 13 oil and gas parcels. “We have customs and cultures that have developed over a hundred years based on the utilization of multiple renewable resources — agriculture, tourism, wildlife, fisheries,” Steward said. “When B.L.M. proposed issuing the leases, residents were asking, ‘What does this mean to the lifestyles that we’ve all grown accustomed to?’ ”

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy, Green Path North.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Abandoned Malls, Suburban Blight

by Stacy Mitchell
Published December 20, 2000 in the Miami Herald

Most people are familiar with the kinds of damage that ``big-box'' retailers have done to local economies. Across the country, these giant stores have gutted downtowns and decimated locally owned businesses.

Now the national chains are dealing communities a second blow. They are vacating their existing stores to build bigger outlets, leaving the landscape littered with dead malls, abandoned strip developments and empty big-box superstores.

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, of the five billion square feet of retail space in the country, fully half a billion sits empty. That's 11,000 football fields worth of dead real estate, surrounded by thousands of acres of asphalt.

What can a city do with the shell of an old Wal-Mart store? Not much. It's a problem plaguing planners and local officials, who are struggling to contain the spread of this new retail blight.

It's also a warning to communities considering new big-box developments. These absentee-owned companies have demonstrated little concern for the economic stability and well-being of the places where they do business. Towns that once welcomed these giant stores, sacrificing locally owned businesses, now regret it.

The roots of the retail vacancy problem are twofold. Chain stores are multiplying at a staggering pace. They've created a glut of retail space. In the last 12 years, per-capita retail space has increased 34 percent, from 15 to 20 square feet. Many towns now have more retail space than residents can support.

The second part of the problem is that corporate chains reinvent themselves every 10 years or so, abandoning existing outlets in favor of new formats. First there were the strip malls, which gave way to the enclosed malls. These in turn failed as developers built waves of ever-larger regional malls. Hundreds of malls weakened and died following the arrival of the first wave of big-box stores in the 1980s. Then in the 1990s, the big boxes themselves began to shed their skins to build larger outlets elsewhere.

Wal-Mart is one of the worst offenders. According to the latest tally from Sprawl-Busters, an organization that helps communities fight superstore sprawl, the United States is home to 380 empty Wal-Mart stores. Sometimes Wal-Mart abandons a town altogether. More often, the company closes a store and opens a larger store nearby. Wal-Mart plans to ``relocate'' as many as 110 stores next year.

Most abandoned stores remain vacant for many years. The buildings are unsuitable for much besides big-box retailing. National retailers generally prefer to maintain the lease rather than let the property fall into the hands of a competitor.

West Columbia, S. C., is home to almost a dozen empty or soon-to-be-vacated big-box stores, including Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Target and Circuit City. All are building larger outlets nearby. Leapfrogging across the landscape costs these companies less than recycling existing properties. But the only reason it's so cheap is because the rest of us are paying the price. The new stores are chewing up valuable farmland and open space, exacerbating traffic and air pollution, burdening public services and morphing our communities into placeless blobs of sprawl. The empty stores create blight and erode local property values.

Main Street businesses are owned by local people.

Not content to become victims of the corporate cannibalization game, a growing number of cites and towns are rejecting national chains. Many have barred the construction of large-scale superstores and prohibited commercial development in outlying areas. They no longer spend tax dollars on building roads and sewers to service new big boxes but instead on Main Street improvements. Their economic development efforts focus not on attracting outside corporations but on strengthening locally owned businesses and nurturing new ones.

It's a strategy that pays off in the long-run. Unlike the disposable big box, Main Streets have been around for hundreds of years and have the potential to endure for hundreds more. Individual businesses may come and go -- yesterday's dry goods store becomes today's Internet cafe -- but the district itself retains its utility, serving as the center of both economic and social life. Most important, Main Street businesses, unlike distant global companies, are owned by people who live in the community and have a far deeper interest in its well-being.

Stacy Mitchell, a researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (www.newrules.org), is the author of The Home Town Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why It Matters.

Copyright 2000 Miami Herald

Yucca Valley preparing to face the future?

It was standing room only as over 300 crowded in last Thursday for the public study meeting in "a beginning effort to come to terms with two major issues: mass grading and the zoning that determines residential lot sizes." Rebecca Unger's report in the Hi-Desert Star:

Packed with an impassioned populace, the Yucca Room has rocked lately as housing tracts and the Wal-Mart Supercenter get the full effect of “public review.” However, underlying these raucous lessons in civics is a dawning realization that town growth and quality-of-life issues are colliding over Yucca Valley’s guiding document, the General Plan.

Approved and adopted Dec. 14, 1995, this set of codes provides goals, policies and strategies “to guide the development of the Town and to preserve its valued assets and resources.” And like the national Constitution, the interpretations of this local document become vast battlefields upon which tortoise and townhouse duke it out.

[snip]

Starting with their upcoming strategic planning meeting, [the Council] will seek to give direction to staff to revisit this venerable document. By mid-June the General Plan should be squarely in their sights.


No action was taken on the grading and zoning issues.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See Grading/Clear-Cutting and Land Use/Development pages on MBCA Website. Additional posts: Yucca Valley, Grading.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Mitzelfelt wants moratorium on alternative energy in the High Desert

As proposals for industrial solar and wind projects continue to deluge desert agencies, the dilemma of the alternative-energy land rush in the Mojave has been noticed by 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, according to columnist Cassie MacDuff writing in the Press-Enterprise:
Mitzelfelt and [Apple Valley Councilman Scott] Nassif are concerned that the desert is being asked to bear the brunt of reducing the nation's carbon footprint. While alternative energy is needed, they want it to be pursued carefully to avoid these damaging side effects.

[snip]

...Mitzelfelt took steps to make sure the county and its citizens have a voice in the process. Under an agreement reached last month, the county and the federal agency will jointly review proposals. Mitzelfelt would like to go further. He'd like a moratorium on applications until the county can determine where in the High Desert such projects should be allowed.


Read the rest of the article here.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Thursday night rumble

Reminder: The Mayor has called a special Yucca Valley Town Council meeting TONIGHT, May 15, at 7:30 p.m. on the topic of clear-cutting and mass grading. This is of critical importance. Be there!! More info here.

But also today (2-8 p.m.) will be an open house sponsored by Wal-Mart at the Community Center. This attempt to sell the warmer and fuzzier new SuperCenter to the citizens of Yucca Valley is described in Wednesday's Hi-Desert Star. It would appear from Rebecca Unger's article that company PR hacks are quick to trot out as their softsoap centerpiece the controversial Adam Werbach, former Sierra Club president and now environmental consultant to WalMart.

Werbach seems to have some earnest ideas on spreading environmental education. But unfortunately, whatever it is he believes he's doing, the result of his trade with WalMart was exactly predictable: His name and former affiliation are being used to sell WalMart. Right here. To us.

Thanks, Adam.

Read an interview with the seemingly terminally confused young man here.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See Grading/Clear-Cutting and Land Use/Development pages on MBCA Website. Additional posts: Yucca Valley, Grading.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Green Path North in the news

Two recent news articles on the upcoming release of the route for the Green Path North transmission corridor through the west end of the Morongo Basin:

"Power-line route nears release"

"After months of silence on the issue, the chief of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has said the agency is nearly ready to announce the route it has chosen for Green Path North, the proposed energy corridor in the desert. In response, environmental groups opposed to the plan, which could stretch from Desert Hot Springs to Hesperia, say they are bracing for the announcement, and at least one group is not ruling out a lawsuit." Part of the power line route would cross public land managed by BLM-California and would requirefull public involvement and environmental review." - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 05/12/08

Read the rest here.

"A fragile treasure"

"Green Path North, a project of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, would cut through a low spot in a nearby ridge and cross the canyon on its way from Coachella to Hesperia. Conservationists worry about the impact the construction and maintenance of such a project might have on this desert area ... A Bureau of Land Management sign requests that visitors not disturb the area and help preserve the past." - Riverside Press-Enterprise, 05/09/08

Read the rest here.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: At California Desert Coalition and on the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy, Green Path North.

CDC Hootenanny to Stop Green Path North June 14

SAVE THE DATE - "Stop the Towers" Hootenanny!

The California Desert Coalition (CDC) will be holding a benefit dinner and silent auction at historic Pappy & Harriets Palace in Pioneertown on June 14, 2008, from 4 to 8 p.m.

Stop the Towers Hootenanny will feature a buffet dinner, great music, no host bar and the opportunity to bid on silent auction items. This festive evening of fun and camaraderie promises to be a real "hoot" and will offer us all the opportunity to hear about the latest progress being made to stop the proposed 500kV power corridor through the Morongo Basin and surrounding communities, including Pioneertown within sight of Pappy & Harriets Palace.

Valuable items from local businesses, artists and individuals have been pledged, and more are needed for the auction. Any items big or small are very welcome and all tax-deductible donations will be acknowledged at the party. Please call Fundraising Committee member Pam Anderson (760-228-9676) if you have a service, object or artwork to contribute to the event and this important cause or if you would like more information about the event.

Bev Doolittle, famous native Californian artist and local resident, has pledged an original piece to help raise monies to increase the education and legal fund, so you can expect to see almost anything up for auction at the Stop the Towers Hootenanny.

Volunteers Needed to Help With This Fundraiser

See the below positions, and please call Judy Ruggles at 760-364-4839 or 714-797-4807 to volunteer your help.

Greeters/Check-In Table
Duties: Greeting arriving guests; checking names on reservation sheets; directing guests to party area.
Skills: Happy personalities; ability to maintain poise under pressure; ability to find names on sheets quickly and check in. 5 volunteers needed

Silent Auction Hosts
Duties: Maintain presence near silent auction tables; help generate excitement as bidding processes get underway; ensure auction items are picked up by winning bidders at close of auction.
Skills: Ability to stand for extended periods of time; ability to socialize; assertive enough to request that guests not handle items, if need be. 6-8 volunteers needed

Cashiers
Duties: Process monies paid by winning bidders.
Skills: Ability to process checks, cash and credit cards quickly & accurately; ability to total out banks and report totals to Cash Manager. 5 volunteers needed

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: At California Desert Coalition and on the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy, Green Path North.

Yucca Valley Grading - Special Town Council Meeting

Dear MBCA Members and Friends,

The Mayor of Yucca Valley has called a special meeting of the Town Council on Thursday, May 15, 2008, at the Yucca Valley Senior Center, at 7:30 p.m. Below is a copy of the meeting agenda.

The purpose of this historic meeting is to discuss clear-cutting (mass grading) of development sites in Yucca Valley.

In addition, Residential Minimum Lot Size will be discussed as it relates to spot (footprint) grading instead of clear-cutting.

Clear-cutting is contrary to the Town General Plan that specifies the protection of the Town's rural character.

Clear-cutting destroys every living thing on the land, exposes it to water and wind erosion and diminishes the ability of the land to retain water.

Please attend this meeting and let your voice be heard.

Sincerely,

David Fick
MBCA President

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT:

N O T I C E A ND C A L L O F S P E C I A L M E E T I N G

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN as provided by Government Code of the State of California Section 54956 that Mayor Robert Leone called a Special Meeting of the Town Council of the Town of Yucca Valley, for Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Yucca Valley Senior Center, 57088 Twentynine Palms Highway, Yucca Valley, California, for the below stated purpose.

AGENDA

(Action may be taken on any of the items listed below)

ROLL CALL: Council Members Herbel, Luckino, Mayes, Neeb and Mayor Leone.

1. Discussion regarding Grading

2. Discussion regarding Residential Minimum Lot Size.

3. Closed Session per Government Code Section 54957, Public Employee Performance Evaluation. (Town Manger)



______________________________

Janet M. Anderson,
Town Clerk of the Town of Yucca Valley
DATED: May 13, 2008


MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See Grading/Clear-Cutting and Land Use/Development pages on MBCA Website. Additional posts: Yucca Valley, Grading.