"The Saudi Arabia of solar"

San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt is not happy with the Bureau of Land Management lifting the moratorium on applications for solar projects in the Mojave.

“At a time when we are trying to protect habitat, provide for recreation, maintain the expansive beauty of the desert while providing for responsible growth, not to mention the expansion of desert military bases, we cannot afford to surrender vast areas of public land to solar energy projects,” Mitzelfelt said in a news release. “We are not opposed to alternative energy; we just need to be careful and judicious when we are talking about taking away hundreds of square miles of land that belongs to the American people.”

Per the Victor Valley Daily Press, "Mitzelfelt supports the Programmatic EIS as the best way to take a broad overview of the challenges posed by developing these sprawling, land-intensive projects."

The usually shy and unvalued Mojave continues to show up in unexpected places as the rush to Big Solar permeates the news - especially the financial news. Fortune Magazine enters the act with a scary but highly informative article about the players and the "hot real estate" involved:

A solar land rush is rolling across the desert Southwest. Goldman Sachs, utilities PG&E and FPL, Silicon Valley startups, Israeli and German solar firms, Chevron, speculators - all are scrambling to lock up hundreds of thousands of acres of long-worthless land now coveted as sites for solar power plants....It's not just a federal-land grab either. Buyers are also vying for private property. Some are paying upwards of $10,000 an acre for desert dirt that a few years ago would have sold for $500.

Solar prospectors tend to be as secretive about their land as forty-niners were about the veins of gold they discovered. Most bids are placed by limited-liability corporations with opaque names that conceal their ownership. And no one has been as quick to move into the Mojave - or as tightlipped about it - as Solar Investments. That entity, it turns out, is Goldman Sachs's (GS, Fortune 500) solar subsidiary. The investment bank's designs on the desert are a topic of intense interest and speculation. Goldman declined to comment.

Highlighting the tremendous challenge facing desert communities and conservationists to get their views understood, Forbes Magazine portrays the triumph felt on Capitol Hill when the BLM lifted the moratorium. Quoting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.:

"I am glad the Bureau of Land Management has arrived at this good decision. Nevada is the Saudi Arabia of solar energy and is poised to lead a global clean energy revolution. We need to do all we can to encourage public and private investment in projects to develop this amazing potential."

The Las Vegas Sun provides even more detail on the drama behind the reversal:

The onslaught of media and political attention...made the moratorium all but unsustainable... [G]rowing criticism of the moratorium stretched as far as the Daily Telegraph of London and the Economist, which headlined an article “Freezing the Sun.” When The New York Times picked it up Friday, the end was near. The story line that emerged was politically poisonous in an election year.

But closer to the action local concerns are beginning to penetrate the media. In "BLM Stirs Up a Desert Storm" the San Bernardino Sun quotes Joshua Tree resident Jim Harvey, a founding member of the Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy, on the BLM lifting of the moratorium:

"This is horrible news, devastating news for the well-being of the Mojave. I want to see it (solar) on our rooftops, and I don't want to see it in our wilderness. They are going to kill millions of acres of wilderness all for the sake of profit."

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

YV Council steps up, sends Stadum back to Planning Commission

According to an attendee's report, last night the Yucca Valley Town Council rejected an appeal by developer Bob Stadum, sending his Yucca Valley Homes project back to the Planning Commission. The vote was 4-1, with Councilmember Frank Luckino opposing.

Per our source, Mayor Bob Leone castigated Stadum for an obvious political move of bringing the project to the Council and not even attempting to work with the Planning Commission. Stadum had three times failed to present alternatives to mass-grading of the 60 acres, a plan that did not meet Town regulations.

Could the Council finally be getting the message that residents want grading regulations followed?

ADDENDUM: Read the Hi-Desert Star account of the meeting here. (07/12/2008)


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

MBCA Meets Thursday, July 10

The next regular board meeting of the Morongo Basin Conservation Association is July 10, 2008, at 9:00 AM at PFF Bank & Trust, 57271 Twentynine Palms Highway in Yucca Valley.

Please join us and add your voice and experience.

Alert! Stadum Project Appeal Tuesday, July 8!

Note: This is the hearing that had to be postponed on June 25 because the Wal-Mart Supercenter hearing went so late. The Stadum Project ("Yucca Valley Homes") is for 90 homes on 60 acres and would include mass grading. - ChrisC.

Greetings Members and Friends of MBCA,

The Yucca Valley Town Council is considering the "appealed" Yucca Valley Homes LLC (Stadum Project) that was denied by the Planning Commission on recommendation of Town Planning staff.

The applicant had three chances to present alternatives to mass grading of the two twenty-acre parcels at Acoma Drive and Joshua Lane. They basically told the Planning Commission to "take it or leave it". The Planning Commission denied it.

The Town Council had a special meeting about "Rural", "Lot sizes" and "Mass Grading" on May 15th. There were more than three hundred people there and by the show of hands in support of statements made, about 90% present were in support of stopping "mass grading".

Bob Stadum and Philip Fomotor didn't want to take notice of this local uprising, and we don't know if all members of the Town Council did either.

A test of the Native Plant Ordinance "as is" is coming to the Yucca Valley Town Council on Tuesday, July 8th, at 6:00 pm. Please attend this meeting if possible and make your concerns known to the Yucca Valley Town Council.

Sincerely,

David Fick,
President, MBCA


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

Illegal off-roading is a national problem

Joshua Tree resident Victoria Fuller has the Guest Soapbox in the Hi-Desert Star this week and writes about her experience testifying last March before a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands on this issue:

The emphasis of my testimony was the impact on private property owners. I found that my concerns and the concerns I have heard from other members of the Morongo Basin were mirrored across the country.

The use of ORVs has grown exponentially over the past few years. Information to parents on the risks has not been disseminated and the impact to the community and local property owners is just being assessed.

Legislation that was discussed included: License plates for identification the same size as those used on cars; for children under age 16, limiting the use of ORVs to age-appropriate ORVs; suggested by the American Pediatric Association was not allowing use by any child under the age of 16.

Read the rest of Victoria's Soapbox here.


MORE INFO ON THESE ISSUES: On Community ORV Watch and on the Off-Road Vehicle page of the MBCA Website. Previous blog posts: Off-Road Vehicles.

Yucca Mesa Improvement Association

Yucca Mesa Improvement Association reminds us in a letter this week to the Hi-Desert Star that it's an historic organization with strong roots and a history of working together for the good of the community:

YMIA once had a membership of over 600 people. These people were instrumental in bringing services to the Mesa area, including water, phone, electrical, mail, TV and fire service, to name a few.

[snip]

The Yucca Mesa Improvement Association is a member of the Homestead Valley Community council, a group which is politically influential with the county government specific to the entire area north of Yucca Valley, including Flamingo Heights, Landers and Johnson Valley.

The Association needs support and participation or is in danger of folding. Find out more on their friendly Website at YuccaMesa.org.

BLM suspends moratorium on solar applications

The rush to industrialize the Mojave with solar plants ("Big Solar") was much in the national news this week as the energy crisis deepened.

The Bureau of Land Management, after announcing last month that it would temporarily stop accepting applications for solar plants until it completed an environmental study it estimated to take up to two years, has caved to pressure and re-commenced accepting applications "in response to public interest in solar energy development."

The BLM will process these applications, while continuing to identify issues during public scoping currently underway for the programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS).

"We heard the concerns expressed during the scoping period about waiting to consider new applications," said BLM Director James Caswell, "and we are taking action. By continuing to accept and process new applications for solar energy projects, we will aggressively help meet growing interest in renewable energy sources, while ensuring environmental protections."

The condemnation of the moratorium had been intense, with ignorance of the biological importance of the territories of the Mojave and a dismissal of desert lands as having any intrinsic value rife among public and industry alike. New players also don't seem to be familiar with the rules: It appears many of the firms proposing solar facilities are financial firms and others not usually in the business of siting utility operations on federal lands and are outraged that long-standing environmental regulations may interfere with their desire to swiftly satisfy their stockholders. Per Reuters:

Fred Morse, senior advisor for U.S. operations at Abengoa Solar, a Spanish company with a solar plant in development in Arizona, said the moratorium could hurt many companies in the burgeoning U.S. industry.

Companies could face hefty fines if they don't deliver on previously signed agreements to supply power, and a blanket freeze on the industry is a mistake, he said.

The desert and its communities are faced with an immense challenge as panicked citizens and opportunistic investors rush to exploit the Mojave. The Desert Protective Council has asked for an additional public scoping meeting on the PEIS, and this has been scheduled for El Centro on Thursday, July 10. Read more about the issue and DPC's efforts on their blog. Read the BLM Press Release regarding the meeting and how to participate here.


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

Reptiles for kids at the Museum

Through July and August the Hi-Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley is presenting Art and Science Tuesdays for kids, from 10 a.m. to noon. This week featured "Reptiles of the Desert". Future programs feature such diverse topics as animal scat, where our water comes from, and sand-painting. Find out more here.

Aide to former 1st District supervisor Postmus arrested

Authorities yesterday arrested a top deputy of County Assessor Bill Postmus, formerly Supervisor of the desert's 1st District including the eastern end of the Morongo Basin.

Adam Aleman, 25, was charged with six felonies, including presenting false evidence to a county grand jury and destroying public records.

Less than three hours later, that same county grand jury issued a scathing report on the operations of the assessor's office, concluding that many of the hires, including Aleman, "lacked experience or training directly associated with assessor work."

The grand jury found that employees in Postmus' executive staff engaged in political activities during normal working hours and found e-mails on the county computers arranging political meetings and soliciting campaign contributions. - Press-Enterprise

John Goritz, an assistant district attorney with the Public Integrity Unit, said the destruction of public records and vandalism charges stem from Aleman's work for Postmus when he was a county supervisor, according to the San Bernardino Sun.

Read the account in the Sun here and in the Press-Enterprise here.

Open Space Group staffer at Basin Wide Foundation

At the Breakfast Meeting of the Basin Wide Foundation this Thursday:

Stephanie Weigel, Regional Land Use Planner for the Morongo Basin Open Space Group, will facilitate a short community engagement exercise as an introduction to speaking on the Open Space Group’s ongoing collaborative efforts at regional conservation and land use planning for the Morongo Basin. She will discuss Sonoran Institute’s involvement with the Open Space Group, implementation of their 2008 Action Plan, community involvement in the process, and conservation planning goals.

Thursday, July 3, 2008. Helen Gray Center at the Hi Desert Medical Center. Questions: (760) 365-7219.