This is your chance to ask why General Electric, Goldman Sachs, and the big utilities should be allowed to obliterate the desert in order to sell energy to the urban areas instead of putting decentralized solar on all the rooftops we already have.
As noted previously on this blog, the BLM, in cooperation with the Department of Energy, is developing the Solar Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). According to the Sacramento Business Journal:
California meetings will include Riverside on Monday, June 16; Barstow on Tuesday, June 17; and Sacramento on Thursday, June 19. You may also submit written comments by Sunday, June 15. [CORRECTION: WRITTEN COMMENT DEADLINE IS JULY 15, NOT JUNE 15.] More details on the BLM news release.The BLM, now faced with at least 130 proposals to build solar and other renewable energy projects in California's deserts, has stopped accepting new right-of-way applications for solar projects until it completes [the PEIS].
The PEIS will help balance the rising demand to tap renewable energy resources in California's arid areas while maintaining desert land as habitat for plants and animals. The BLM said "measures adopted as a result of the PEIS will provide consistency and certainty for solar energy development and will help expedite environmental analysis for site specific projects in the future."
In-depth information on the program and the scoping process can be viewed at the Solar Energy Development PEIS Information Center.
The push of Big Solar into the Mojave has every potential to completely transform the desert in which we live. It's important that the survival of our way of life and of the many creatures who live here be considered. Don't count on the BLM to "maintain habitat." Make your voice heard!
ERRATA: Written comment deadline is JULY 15, not June 15. Apologies.
MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy.
