{"id":466787,"date":"2010-03-24T09:33:52","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T13:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3230"},"modified":"2010-03-24T09:33:52","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T13:33:52","slug":"enviros-oppose-solar-plant-in-nev-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/466787","title":{"rendered":"Enviros oppose solar plant in Nev. desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasvegassun.com\/news\/2010\/mar\/23\/plea-desert-preservation\/\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.lasvegassun.com\/media\/img\/photos\/2010\/03\/22\/scaled.0323_m_protest_t651.jpg?f88c8649bbadbb805ebb7b1c2020cc5b10765421\" width=\"362\" align=\"left\" height=\"239\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/climatewire\/2010\/03\/24\/10\/\" >ClimateWire<\/a>: Though environmentalists typically support more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Renewable_energy\">solar energy<\/a>  development, some have come out against a proposed facility being  developed in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Mojave_desert\">Mojave Desert<\/a> by Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource  Energy Inc.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, about 20 people hiked near the proposed site of the  Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, just across the California  border from Primm, Nev. They were searching for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Endangered_Species_Act%2C_United_States\">endangered species<\/a> and  environmental concerns that could be used to derail the project. They  represent a conflict seen throughout the Southwest as solar energy  companies develop utility-scale plants. Though environmentalists support  the technology, they oppose the use of pristine desert expanses that  are often the most attractive from a business perspective.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand why so much emphasis has to be put on these  gigantic projects that are taking up wild open space,&#8221; said Laura  Cunningham, a member of Beatty, Nev.-based Basin and Range Watch.  &#8220;Reducing electricity consumption even a tiny bit and deploying urban  technologies like rooftop solar first, before we start bringing out the  bulldozers, would be better for everyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>BrightSource received $1.37 billion in conditional loan guarantees  last month from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop three solar  power plants, including the Ivanpah array. The company says the  facilities will eventually provide enough energy to power 140,000  California homes (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eenews.net\/eenewspm\/2010\/02\/22\/4\/\" ><em>E&amp;ENews  PM<\/em><\/a>, Feb. 22).<\/p>\n<p>In response to criticism from environmentalists, BrightSource has  argued that the site of the facility is not untouched &#8212; electric  transmission lines and off-highway vehicle trails have been built there  already. The company says it will preserve and relocate the plants and  endangered desert tortoises living on the site (Stephanie Tavares, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasvegassun.com\/news\/2010\/mar\/23\/plea-desert-preservation\/\" ><em>Las  Vegas Sun<\/em><\/a>, March 23). <strong>&#8211; GN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3230&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3230\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ClimateWire: Though environmentalists typically support more solar energy development, some have come out against a proposed facility being developed in the Mojave Desert by Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy Inc. On Saturday, about 20 people hiked near the proposed site of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, just across the California border from Primm, Nev. They [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}