Solar Power and our National Landscape

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/681373.html
I have posted the comment section as well, since it is rather enlightening about public opinion.

Bob Cuddy: Solar has got to go in someone’s backyard
Bob Cuddy – bcuddy@thetribunenews.com
Comments (30) | Recommend (5)

“Hey, we don’t like it, either. You think we want to louse up the view out there? You think we spend every waking hour figuring ways to make life difficult for the blunt-nosed leopard lizard?

“Here’s the bottom line: This stuff has to go someplace. And Carrizo Plain beats the alternatives, in terms of disrupting lives, human or otherwise. We’ll try to do as little damage as possible, and we’ll stay away from the national monument, but you have to make way for solar plants.”

I find myself wondering — again — just how badly the solar power people, who want to move forward, feel like saying “put a sock in it” to the yapping of those who want to halt forward progress.

I’m rolling one sentence in particular around on my tongue: “This stuff has to go someplace.”

That’s a reality that the people who oppose everything everywhere simply refuse to accept.

Opponents are saying the proposed solar plants will “destroy” the area. But that’s what every resident of anyplace says when they don’t want something built.

This county in particular has a cabinet full of “don’t destroy” files. The most recent, but by no means the first, is the now-faltering effort to extract oil from the Huasna Valley in South County.

Residents there went so far as to chew through decades of the personal history of the project’s proponents, like worms noshing on a tasty cadaver.

In general, I salute the civic-mindedness of folks like this. They are vigilant stewards of their backyards (as in “Not In My”).

But solar power is different, as are wind turbines. We are talking about the future of the country and, if you want to get melodramatic, the planet.

How long have we known about global warming? It seems like forever. We all know in our heart of hearts that we have to get away from fossil fuels.

Dinosaur remains as an energy source are eventually going to go the way of, well, dinosaurs. It will be a slow death, because the people who take gazillions of dollars from oil production are not going to give that up without a ferocious fight.

But they’re going to lose. Just as an example, the Obama administration has blocked the Bush administration’s 11th hour scheme to open up offshore oil drilling. The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors this week is likely to formally oppose offshore drilling, as has the Board of Supervisors in the county just below ours.

The state is getting on board as well. California has rules that require 33 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. If the three proposed solar farms on Carrizo Plain are not built, that goal will remain unmet.

If they are built, it could help. What is being proposed on the plain could generate enough energy to power 800,000 homes.

Taking the long view, these individual political and environmental struggles are skirmishes in a long war. When the battle is done a few decades from now, we will be receiving our energy from the sun and the wind and the sea.

But first, we must build structures to make that happen. Sorry to repeat myself, but they have to go someplace.

It’s time to accept the downside to that and let these solar plants move forward.
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Comments: 30 Showing:

* [@Nyx.AdditionalAuthorInfo@]
ABC123 wrote on 04/13/2009 10:04:36 AM:

Concerning Large Scale Solar vs. Roof Top installations:

Ya, you pick up some efficiencies in the installation of LSS, but that is offset (or perhaps more than offset) by the cost to improve your grid to move that power where you need it. The grid upgrade cost is avoided with rooftop solar.

Even if other conditions are less than optimal (less sunlight, higher land costs), a LSS closer to your load center (S.F., L.A. etc) can make sense due to the reduction in grid upgrade costs.
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pveesart wrote on 04/13/2009 10:01:12 AM:

First, stop using so much electricity. We (both home and industrial users) waste too much power on non-essentials. Unplug your dryer and string up a clothesline. Second, site new solar facilities over parking lots or on rooftops – not in critical habitat. They belong in Bob Cuddy’s backyard, not on the Carrizo. When we have dramatically reduced our energy demand and all the Wal-mart parking lots and freeways are covered with solar panels, then we’ll talk.
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kenfield wrote on 04/12/2009 10:28:15 PM:

Whew — Fox News has trained SLORider to say “far left liberals” in every sentence. That subliminal overscan subcarrier works a little too well on folks who sit that close to the tube. One can only wonder what else Roger Ailes may have programmed him to do, ala “The Manchurian Candidate.”
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kenfield wrote on 04/12/2009 10:15:39 PM:

California’s peak load is about 50,000MW in the summer. The three proposed solar plants total 977MW while covering 8740 acres. Can solar plants like this be scaled up to a significant portion of peak load? (I don’t know – I’m asking.) Germany puts solar panels along highways, etc. — even if home rooftops aren’t always practical, there are plenty of other in-town sites for solar arrays.

When they figure out how to convert dark energy into an unlimited source of power using a collector that fits inside an iPhone, is the Tribune going to admit it was a good thing we didn’t cover the countryside with so many solar panels that it looks like the freakin’ Death Star? Unlikely. At least this newspaper is saving the extra juice it would require to write a nuanced analysis of this issue — probably enough to chill Cuddy’s sixpack of Pabst Blue Ribbon and power his daily viewing of “Wheel of Fortune” (on an 11″ B&W with rabbit ears and a government-issue digital converter box).
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SLORider wrote on 04/12/2009 10:13:42 PM:

Well said, stuck_in_the_mud. When are the far left liberals going to act responsibly? The far left liberals have MANDATED renewable energy and this is the result of their incompetence. To say that distributed solar is cheaper is laughable! Anyone knows that a large-scale factory is cheaper and more efficient than thousands of small installations. Rooftop solar is by no means a poor idea, but you cannot just install it without regard. Weight and wind load calculations must be done, possible structural upgrades, aesthetics, electrical, and not to mention that San Luis Obispo does not get the same solar profile that Carrizo does. The far left extremists are not arguing fact. They are arguing one-sided views.
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Terri wrote on 04/12/2009 09:18:11 PM:

Bob I see you had all the coments taken off!!!! Afraid of the truth!
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jdchem wrote on 04/12/2009 09:09:44 PM:

We should get Jerry Springer to mediate this discussion.
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LPaso wrote on 04/12/2009 08:31:10 PM:

There is no doubt that these projects will have impacts and clearly the proponents of the projects get that and are trying to reduce impacts. However, opponents to the projects, as NIMBYs usually do, exagerate the impacts, twist the facts and end up proposing solutions in someone else’s backyard. In my opinion, the impacts of not doing these projects is greater than doing them. How long can we go go war to preserve our energy supplies? If you think that these projects will “destroy” the plains, you have never been to a strip coal mine in Virginia or Tennessee. Bob makes some good points.
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CarrisaBelle wrote on 04/12/2009 07:37:11 PM:

Smaller print is right…we need an energy plan for THIS county. The projects on the plains have nothing to do with creating a sustainable energy supply for our county. All that power heads to the valley. These plants are being promoted on feel good PR, something like .. let these go in (just forget about how environmentally sensitive the plains are) and then we can all feel good about how green SLO County is…. but the truth is all we’re doing is nothing, passing the buck and we are no greener for it. What a horrible example we’re setting. We’re spending our natural resources with nothing to show for it. So instead of those folks over in the valley thinking about how to create there own supply of sustainable energy…or the dreaded concept of Conserving Energy…they get a free pass cause we donated our critical kit fox habitat so they don’t have to give it a second thought. Let’s be a better example, preserve our natural resources and set an example by creating our own susta
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CalPolyCity wrote on 04/12/2009 06:51:31 PM:

Hello Dennis,
Is the government going to go ahead with plans which allow new nuclear power sites?
I wonder how many are in a planning stage now? Anyone know the position of the Obama administration on the issue of reprocessing spent fuel rods?

LA Times Story: House Passes Bill to Expand Wilderness

House Passes Bill to Expand Wilderness

In California–which now has 14
million acres of wilderness (second
only to Alaska, which has more than
57 million acres) — the bill would
protect about 700,000 additional
acres from new roads and most
commercial uses such as new mining,
logging and energy development.
Included in the legislation is $88
million to help fund a project to return
year-round flows and a prized salmon
run to the San Joaquin River for the
first time since the 1940s. The bill
also would provide $61 million toward
cleanup of polluted groundwater in
the San Gabriel Valley.

The California Desert Conservation Area

Before you read this press release, consider signing the petition to the Dept. of Interior to release an investigation it completed several years ago on the death of monument manager Marlene Braun: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/JusticeforMarleneBraun. Help her family, friends, and all of the people who care about the Carrizo Plain find some closure to this tragedy.

Immediate Release: February 4, 2009
Contact: Jeff Ruch (202) 265-7337

CALIFORNIA DESERT WINS NEW PROTECTION VIA FEINSTEIN AMENDMENT — Lion’s Share of CDCA Included in Landscape Conservation System by Omnibus Bill

Washington, DC — The vast majority of the California Desert Conservation Area will be included within the National Landscape Conservation System if an Omnibus Public Lands Bill which passed the Senate last month is finally enacted. An amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) prior to the January 15, 2009 Senate approval addressed the status of the CDCA, but there is bureaucratic resistance within the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which manages the vast area, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The CDCA covers 10 million acres, approximately one-tenth of the entire California surface area. Legislation to codify the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), a network of national monuments, historic trails and conservation areas within the BLM, had been silent about how much of the CDCA would be included. The Feinstein amendment declares that all CDCA lands administered “for conservation purposes” will be included within the NLCS.

Current BLM classifications for CDCA indicate that approximately 8 million acres (80% of the CDCA) are now managed for conservation (either as closed or limited access areas to protect wildlife and habitat). Another 1.5 millions acres could be managed for conservation once other uses have ceased – meaning that up to 95% of the CDCA could ultimately be included, leaving out only the 500,000 acres now used for “intensive” off-road vehicle traffic.

“Senator Feinstein pledged to protect the California desert and she came through,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that BLM staff in California had fought for its inclusion within the NLCS but had been overruled by the agency’s Washington headquarters. “We hope that the new BLM leadership will embrace this opportunity that the departing leadership appeared to dread.”

According to documents received by PEER through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against BLM, “disadvantages” perceived by agency leadership to including CDCA within the NLCS are that it –

* “Increases public expectations that CDCA will be managed to emphasize conservation, protection, and restoration”;

* “Increases scrutiny of some existing resource uses” and

* “Changes the management of the CDCA…” and increases “the complexity” of its budget.

“BLM headquarters still does not seem to understand that the reason the California Desert Conservation Area was created actually had something to do with conservation,” Ruch added. “BLM regarding public expectations that public land should be protected as a ‘disadvantage’ is just plain perverse.”

National Defense Counsel Bio-Gems

Petition to Release Dept. of Interior Report
NRDC Identifies 13 Threatened Natural Areas in the Americas as “BioGems”

WASHINGTON (February 3, 2009) — The Natural Resources Defense Council named 13 natural areas and six associated wild species as “BioGems” today. These extraordinary and at-risk places stretch from the Arctic in Alaska to Patagonia in Chile. New to the list of BioGems are the Carrizo Plain National Monument in central California and the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Alberta, Canada, which are imperiled by oil and gas development. For the first time, NRDC has designated a country as a BioGem — Costa Rica — which is seeking to become the world’s first carbon-neutral nation.

“These BioGems are some of the last wild and unspoiled places left in the Western Hemisphere,” said Robert Kennedy, Jr., senior attorney at NRDC. “By naming these places as BioGems, NRDC is empowering hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals to take effective action to save these natural treasures for generations to come.”

Since 2001, NRDC has campaigned to save more than 30 special natural places that offer sanctuary for endangered wildlife, curb global warming and provide livelihoods for local communities. NRDC redesigned its “Save BioGems” Web site with new features in order to more effectively mobilize online activists to protect these areas.

New NRDC BioGems

The Carrizo Plain National Monument is home to the greatest concentration of endangered species in California, including the California condor and the San Joaquin kit fox. Despite its designation as a National Monument, the Carrizo Plain is threatened by oil and gas drilling that could cause irreparable damage to critical wildlife and sensitive ecosystems. Vintage Production, an oil company, is planning to explore for oil reserves, using giant “thumper” trucks to send disruptive shock waves deep into the earth.

The Peace-Athabasca Delta is one of the world’s most important resting grounds for more than 1 million birds, including tundra swans, snow geese and countless ducks. For many waterfowl, this area is the only nesting ground. But Canada is ramping up tar sands oil extraction in the boreal forest just south of the delta, which could contaminate and reduce water flow into the delta, kill fish, and disturb habitat. Tar sands oil development also contributes to global warming, which has reduced ecologically important flooding in the delta.

In Costa Rica, NRDC is working with the Energy and Environment Ministry to identify measures to help the country meet its commitment of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral nation by 2021. NRDC also just signed an agreement with the national electric utility (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. In partnership with one of Latin America’s leading ecological facilities (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza) located in Costa Rica, NRDC has launched a rainforest rejuvenation project to plant 30,000 trees to restore a natural rainforest. These actions will help Costa Rica reaffirm its position as a global environmental leader and reduce pressure on its biodiversity and other natural areas.

“We have a new opportunity under the Obama administration to protect and save a number of our BioGems,” said Jacob Scherr, co-director of NRDC’s BioGems Initiative. “Places like the Tongass National Forest, Utah’s Redrock Wilderness, and wildlife like the polar bear remain in danger after eight years of reckless policies.”

Save BioGems Website
The newly redesigned Web site features a blog by NRDC wildlife experts; an action alert widget that can be embedded on social networks; interactive slideshows and video; and more Spanish-language content. The site also includes an “Action Log” where BioGems activists can track their actions and achievements in protecting these areas.

“The success of the BioGems initiative demonstrates the power of the Internet as a tool for conservation,” said Scherr. “Save Biogems has enabled people around the world to have a voice in protecting some of the most unique wild places in our hemisphere.”

For more information, go to http://www.SaveBioGems.org.

Source: The Natural Resources Defense Council

Look for more stories like this to come

From: Creek Running North A closed web log, operated May 2003-May 2008 by nature and science writer Chris Clarke. This is from Aug. 24, 2005, with comments from the original.

Ron sent along this story from the Los Angeles Times.

Excerpt:

CARRIZO PLAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT, Calif. — First she killed her dogs, shot them in the head with a .38-caliber revolver and covered the two bodies with a quilt. Then Marlene Braun leveled the blue steel muzzle three inches above her right ear and pulled the trigger.

“I can’t face what appears to be required to continue to live in my world,“ the meticulous 46-year-old wrote in May in a suicide note. “Most of all, I cannot leave Carrizo, a place where I finally found a home and a place I love dearly.“

Braun had come to the Carrizo Plain three years earlier, after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management placed her in charge of the new national monument — 250,000 acres of native grasses and Native American sacred sites, embraced by low mountains, traversed by the San Andreas Fault and home to more threatened and endangered animals than any other spot in California.

Suicide is rarely an indication of an emotionally healthy person. As desperate as the planet’s state may be, Braun would have chosen well to devote her grief to saving another part of this beleaguered West.

But love for a landscape can be a fierce, all-encompassing thing.

And few people develop stronger love for a new landscape than the grunt-level managers hired to steward the place. As the Bush administration increasingly puts the screws to real conservation initiatives, lying about science and selling out our common heritage to its base of resource extractors, look for more despair among the people we charge with protecting the land.

This sucks.

Posted by: Chris Clarke

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See the Billings Outpost for more on this story, Aug. 25 and the latest issue, Sept. 15. Our public lands are in real trouble if the supervisors running them are like the ones in Hollister, Bakersfield and Redding. And I know if more problems in other California BLM offices. Something very toxic is going on, not in the environment per se, but in the management offices!

By: By Mel on 2005 09 18

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I checked out the Billings Outpost issues and there are some interesting things there. There is a blm employee (?) making claims Marlene Braun was not listening to experts about grazing. I am not sure what went on with the grazing debate. as an environmental person i care a lot about the issue and think the writer makes some weird claims about endangered species being killed by not enough grazing. But isnt the problem here that this woman shot herself and it ought to be looked into? I mean, even if she was hard to deal with we dont say to spouses who batter, “oh, yeah, your wife was a real pain in the butt, so it’s OK that you drove her to kill herself.“ Why should an employer get to do it?

By: By Germain J. Barker on 2005 09 28

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What you said about the love of a landscape being a fierce, all encompassing thing really hit me. I knew Marlene a little and she really felt that about the Carrizo, you could tell in even a few minutes. I hope more people will come to love the landscape. She and her coworkers in the Carrizo really did great things there. Please remember the beauty.

By: By Maureen S. on 2005 10 01

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I have seen the comments on the Billings Outpost. This site struck me because of the few comments, but that they have to do with the land and this tragedy. Preserving the land means investigating what happened here. It still seems like no one is doing that. All over California and maybe the west this stuff is happening. We have to say enough.

By: By Bart Collier on 2005 10 02