Solar is winning out over new fossil fuel development in California, but

The Big Battle for solar power now is between using wild land in the desert, and polluted or poor quality farmland, (and we don't hear much about using big rooftops in the city)

Fresno County gets a record number of solar proposals for tainted farmland near 5 freeway

http://www.capitalpress.com/content/AP-CA-Solar-farming-110711

11/13/2011--says the California Farm Bureau attorney. "I should know what a crop is, and it doesn't fit my definition of a crop."

...In Fresno County alone, where the $5.8 billion in annual agriculture production is often the highest of any U.S. county, the stakes are high. At least 32 applications for utility-scale solar projects are on file since the first one was approved in July, and four more are planned here by Pacific Gas & Electric, which gets its approval from the state. The result would be a patchwork of solar collectors scattershot across prime farmland.

Planners say they can't recall ever having so many permit applications pending for one type of development, even in the heydays of the home building boom.

"This is unique, and it's pretty new," said Will Kettler, Fresno County's principal planner.

A bill signed in October by Gov. Jerry Brown could make marginal land far more attractive for development. The law will expedite the process by which poor soil can be developed with solar by allowing owners to more easily end their Williamson Act contracts, which grant lower tax rates in exchange for keeping the land in agriculture for 10 years.

The law should expedite development of the 30,000-acre Westlands Solar Park 60 miles southwest of Fresno, one project that has the support of the major environmental groups. All of the land is either of marginal quality or without a reliable water source, but is covered by hundreds of contracts that would have had to be undone individually...

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Sierra Club's longtime chief departs over rift over solar farms in the desert and other compromises; he supported them, members oppose them

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sierra-club-20111119,0,3734323.story

11/19/2011--...The group's support for utility-scale solar development, which threatens such species as the desert tortoise, captures the philosophical shift that occurred under Pope.

"If we don't save the planet, there won't be any tortoises left to save," Pope said...

Water-less farms may go solar instead....

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FRESNO'S WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT GOES SOLAR

Excerpted from PCL's Insider for 3/19/2010

Earlier this week, a private investment group with land in the Westlands Water District announced its intention to farm a new crop in California 's Central Valley : the sun's energy. The proposed Westlands Solar Park would take 30,000 acres of fallow land and provide 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy - enough to power between 2.5 million and 4 million homes in California .

As an agricultural district with junior water rights, the Westlands Water District has frequently been the center of controversy. Most recently, it attempted to overturn California 's Endangered Species Act in a desperate water grab that would have maximized the profits of the agribusiness tycoons that Westlands serves, but risked driving California 's salmon to extinction.

However, the new proposal for solar in the district has drawn a broad base of support from nontraditional allies, including the Sierra Club and the Planning and Conservation League, who are hopeful that the proposed project will make California a leader in carbon-free energy generation and create solar installation, operations, and maintenance jobs in an area with high historic levels of structural unemployment.

PArks Linkage Bill proposed in east Mojave desert...

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Senator Feinstein is Drafting Bill to Link Joshua Tree and East Mojave Parks

excerpted from http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_S_monument16.447149a.html

9/16/2009--...Earlier this year, preservationists said they sought Feinstein's support to create a 2.4 million-acre preserve to protect public land from military use and energy development. The area would be called the "Mother Road National Monument" because it would include 70 miles of historic Route 66...

One supporter said Tuesday that the senator now is working on a more modest plan than initially discussed. ..

Elden Hughes, a member of the Sierra Club California/Nevada Desert Committee and a Joshua Tree resident, said Feinstein is crafting legislation for a smaller monument than envisioned earlier by conservationists.

He said he hopes the Schwarzenegger administration doesn't stop Feinstein's effort, because a monument designation would protect corridors for wildlife to move between Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve. Such swaths of undisturbed land will be especially important as global warming changes habitat, he said.

"Severing the desert would be a huge mistake," Hughes said. "We need the wildlife and plant corridors to remain open."

Desert Land Rush by energy companies...

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Too Hot and Distant for tract houses...But Seems Like Everyone wants a piece of the Mojave Desert...

excerpted from
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-solar1-2009jun01,0,6845540.story

6/1/2009--A rush to stake claims for renewable energy projects in the California desert has triggered a federal investigation and prompted calls for reforms to prevent public lands from being exposed to private profiteering and environmental degradation.

Officials said last week that the inspector general's office of the Department of the Interior was investigating Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar Inc.'s recent acquisition of Hayward, Calif.-based OptiSolar, and its unfinished renewable energy projects, for $400 million. The deal gave First Solar control of what the company described as OptiSolar's "strategic land rights" to 136,000 acres of public land in San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties.

Bureau of Land Management officials, however, said First Solar acquired OptiSolar's applications to develop that land.

"There is no value associated with a mere application, which could be rejected by us for a variety of reasons," said Greg Miller, renewable energy program manager for the BLM office in Moreno Valley...

...Three years ago, the bureau had six applications for solar energy projects on file. Over the last year, it has received 130 additional applications from 50 companies, covering about 600,000 acres -- much of it in one of the sunniest regions on Earth, the Mojave Desert.

Some applicants are asking for parcels as small as 250 acres. Then there is Cogentrix Solar Investments, which is seeking more than 300,000 acres...

...A coalition of a dozen environmental groups led by the Wildlands Conservancy has identified 137,000 acres of public and private agricultural and degraded desert lands -- all near existing transmission lines -- that could be used for solar energy farms.

"On these alternative lands we can unite what otherwise would be conflicting environmental interests," said David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy.

"It would be a real shame if the public policy for our new green economy was driven haphazardly by speculators," he said.

Solar in the City or the Desert?

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Consensus elusive on proposed desert solar projects

http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_S_solar12.3889b12.html

5/12/2009--Dozens of companies have submitted applications to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for solar projects on nearly 600,000 acres in the California desert. Some environmental groups worry that the developments will harm endangered wildlife and disrupt desert vistas.

... Not too fast, countered Bill Corcoran, a Los Angeles-based representative of the Sierra Club. Much of the public land under consideration for large solar plants is pristine and should be preserved for future generations, he said.

That terrain includes former railroad property in the Mojave Desert that conservationists acquired about a decade ago and donated to the federal government.

"It is important the public lands that were bought for conservation should be given that conservation protection," Corcoran said.

He added that the Sierra Club favors solar energy development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Corcoran proposed that the federal government establish a system of tax and regulatory incentives to push much of the solar development onto abandoned farms and other disturbed acreage -- much of it near towns and cities -- that has little habitat or conservation value.

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A statement from the feds:

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Senator Feinstein Wants Energy Plans Halted on Desert Lands that were Donated for Preservation

excerpted from http://yubanet.com/california/Desert-Protection-Feinstein-Seeks-to-Preserve-Former-Catellus-Lands.php

By: Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office

(lands in red and purple are the Wildlands Conservancy donation parcels. Click on map to enlarge)

Washington, DC Mar. 18, 2009 - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the author of the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, today announced her intention to introduce new legislation to establish a national monument to preserve hundreds of thousands of acres in the Mojave Desert. The former Catellus lands were previously donated to or by purchased by the Department of the Interior for conservation.

"The former Catellus lands between the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park were purchased by or donated to the federal government so they would be protected forever. I feel very strongly that the federal government must honor that commitment," Senator Feinstein said.

"That's why I am very concerned about wind and solar development proposals intended for these lands. I'm a strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology -- but it is critical that these projects are built on suitable lands. The former Catellus lands shouldn't be eligible for development.

So, I intend to introduce new legislation to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of these former railroad lands through a national monument designation. This would provide lasting protection for these lands and prevent development, while allowing existing uses to continue. I also intend to work with local stakeholders to determine whether other local desert lands may be suitable for federal protection at this time.

These former Catellus land acquisitions were financed by $40 million in private donations from The Wildlands Conservancy, $18 million in Land and Water Conservation Fund appropriations and approximately $5 million in a price reduction from Catellus, a real estate subsidiary of the former Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad. The private parties contributed this large sum of money in the belief that this land will be protected and conserved. Building huge solar facilities on these lands is untenable and unacceptable. Bottom line: the former Catellus lands must be protected from development."

Senator Feinstein recently expressed her concerns about development proposals intended for the former Catellus lands in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, which is available below.

Protecting the Former Catellus Lands

The national monument designation would ensure that hundreds of thousands of acres between Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve are protected in perpetuity. Large-scale development would be prohibited within the monument in order to protect the biological and aesthetic integrity of the region and guarantee public access for hunting, hiking, camping and exploring scenic back roads.

The 600,000 acre Catellus agreement was one the largest nonprofit land acquisition donations to the United States in history. Most of the Catellus lands were acquired and donated to the federal government between 1999 and 2004. It included nearly 100,000 acres of land to the National Park Service, over 210,000 acres in 20 wilderness areas to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and hundreds of thousands of acres of important habitat for threatened and endangered species.

The BLM is currently reviewing 130 applications for solar and wind energy development in the California desert, covering more than 1 million acres of public land. Several of these applications are located in the eastern Mojave Desert on or near property previously owned by Catellus. The California Energy Commission has estimated that approximately 100,000 to 160,000 acres of desert lands would be needed for the state to meet its 33 percent renewable energy goal by 2020.

Senator Feinstein was the lead sponsor of the 1994 Desert Protection Act, which provided lasting federal protection for nearly 9 million acres of pristine desert land in Southern California. It established Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. It remains the largest parks and wilderness bill to impact the lower 48 states.

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Sixty-mile solar panel corridor proposed in Riverside County's Desert

(CLICK ON MAP TO ENLARGE. Map is from the state's website, http://www.energy.ca.gov/reti/documents/index.html. NOTE: this map does not show the 60-mile Riverside solar proposal)

color shading on map shows:
GREY: Competitive Renewable Energy Zones
BLACK: Protected wilderness areas--no projects allowed
YELLOW: Public parkland and environmentally sensitive private lands
PINK: existing wind energy proposals
ORANGE: proposed solar projects

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Plan would make valley renewable energy leader

By Erica Solvig • The Desert Sun • November 16, 2008

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20081116/NEWS07/811160349

Imagine a sea of glass lining the 60-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from the edge of Joshua Tree National Park to Blythe.
That's what's being envisioned in a statewide renewable energy plan that identifies sections of Palm Springs, Twentynine Palms and eastern Riverside County as key for California's solar and wind development.If ultimately approved, it could propel the Coachella Valley — already home to geothermal and wind energy — to the forefront of the state and the nation's renewable resource efforts.“Renewable energy is big in this valley,” Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley said of using the valley's resources.“It creates jobs to build and then creates a tax base and it's giving us new energy and reducing our reliance on foreign oil.”The plan, still in draft form, identifies 37 zones as key to the state's efforts to boost renewable energy development across California.The three local sites rank as the best options — economically and environmentally — and when combined would generate 6,748-gigawatt hours per year.That's about a tenth of what is needed statewide for energy-hungry California to meet its green goals.While many locals praised the idea of broadening the valley's green energy base, some concerns linger.To get the new, green energy onto the grid, transmission would have to be expanded.State officials handling the energy plan have just started tackling the issue, but some worry that covering large chunks of untouched desert is unwise and that officials should consider breaking it up over larger areas.“We don't want inappropriate (locations),” said Joan Taylor, head of the local Sierra Club.“It could give a black eye to renewable energy.”Renewable energy goals Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed to increase California's renewable energy sources to 20 percent by 2010 and to 33 percent by 2020.In an effort to identify areas to build the necessary wind turbines and solar panels, a coalition was formed from publicly owned utilities and the California's Public Utilities Commission, Energy Commission and Independent System Operator.The group — known as the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiate (RETI) — has embarked on something similar to what cities do when they create master plans.Officials are identifying key locations for green energy development, weighing the economic and environmental concerns and then prioritizing them.Their hope: By laying the groundwork, energy developers will be encouraged to build here.“If it can speed the application and review process, we can get renewables online faster,” said Jim Bartridge, a transmission planner with the initiative.In a draft report released this month and up for public review through Wednesday, RETI officials identified three local areas — wind development in Palm Springs and solar development in Twentynine Palms and the “Riverside East” zones — among the best bang for the buck.The idea is drawing the interest of local stakeholders who want to ensure the development right.Riverside County Supervisor Roy Wilson's office also is studying the RETI plan and is considering sending a letter before Wednesday's comment deadline.Many of the sites align with an existing map created by the federal Bureau of Land Management that identifies federal land that would be prime for green energy development.
It's not known how soon the area could see the wind and solar plans projected on the map.The state and federal officials have memorandums of understanding in place that would allow energy corridors to be built on BLM lands.According to the BLM, the Palm Springs regional office already has 19 solar and four wind applications pending.Despite the obstacles that may lie ahead — including costs and fights over locations — Ashley said compromises must be made to develop the vital green industry.“If they work at it, they'll find a way,” he said.“We have to start doing this.”

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With state officials finalizing a report naming key zones for green energy, a possibly larger fight looms:

The battle over where to place transmission lines.
Officials say the transmission issue will be studied in the next phase of state Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative's analysis.
Traditionally, transmission issues are the biggest barriers to developing green energy.
While the Interstate 10 stretch of eastern Riverside County didn't rank as high environmentally as some other areas, experts noted in the report that other transmission projects aimed at linking the areas already are in the works.
Notably, officials mention Green Path North, a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power proposal to build a transmission corridor through local wildland preserves that has angered Desert Hot Springs and the high desert residents.
Sierra Club's Joan Taylor said she is pro-solar if it's “the right kind and the right place.” But she argued that planners should look at land that is already disturbed instead of “pristine desert.”
“Does this really reflect what's best for the consumer?” she said. “The consumer is going to wind up paying for these big transmission lines, one way or the other.”
But, transmission planner Jim Bartridge pointed out, such environmental concerns are being weighed.
“We're concerned about sensitive areas throughout the state,” he said. “We're trying to avoid those.”

STATE AGENCY WEBSITE ON THIS PROJECT:

http://www.energy.ca.gov/reti/index.html

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More on Big Solar Plans in the Desert

from: http://www.blm.gov/ca/news/newsbytes/2008/354.html

"Solar project under review" (Imperial Valley Press, 10/20/08)
"If Stirling Energy Systems’ 750 megawatt solar project is completed, one Imperial County supervisor believes it would reaffirm this county as the No. 1 energy producer, at least in this state...." Another supervisor "said the county would like to see the Stirling project go forward, while working with the off-road community to diminish any potential impacts."
(Note: this news site may require free registration to view its content online.)
http://ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/10/21/local_news/news03.txt

RELATED: "Environmental review process begins for solar project in Imperial County" (BLM-California news release, 10/17/08)
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, together with the California Energy Commission, today published a notice announcing that the agencies intend to prepare an environmental impact statement/staff assessment for the Stirling Energy Systems' Solar Two Project in Imperial County. The project, to be located about 14 miles west of El Centro, involves about 6,500 acres, including 6,140 acres of BLM public lands and 360 acres of private lands.
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/october/CDD0910_Sterling_Solar2_NOI.html

"Take a look at coincidences in solar power deal" (Oakland Tribune, 10/16/08)
Editorial: "There is a fascinating relationship tied to a breakthrough solar-energy complex near the Mojave Desert Preserve. What is significant about this is the players involved stand to make a handsome sum of money becoming the first solar-generating station on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land ... VantagePoint has a major stake in Oakland-based startup BrightSource Energy, which is planning to spend $2 billion to construct solar power plants along the Nevada border, and has locked up a deal to sell electricity to PG&E, enough to power 321,000 homes annually. "
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_10727573

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News from the Center for Biological Diversity

Solar Roofs at WalMart?

8/29/2008

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1365

Wal-Mart, the largest private purchaser of electricity in the United States, claims that environmental sustainability is among its chief goals. The retailer's much-hyped sustainability initiatives include being supplied by 100-percent renewable energy. Going green is how Wal-Mart's now branding itself.

Except, of course, when it comes to taking more than token action to meet its renewable power objectives.

If Wal-Mart covered the roofs of its stores with solar panels, the resulting solar acreage would roughly equal the size of Manhattan, an island of 23 square miles. But with more than 4,000 Supercenters, Discount Stores, and Sam's Clubs, Wal-Mart has only proposed to install solar panels on 22 of its stores. In other words, after claiming for years that it wants to be supplied completely by renewable energy, Wal-Mart has not even come close to reaching 1 percent of this goal.

Wal-Mart is skirting California law and refusing to incorporate cost-effective features like solar panels in new stores throughout California.

The California Environmental Quality Act requires that new projects in California adopt all feasible measures to lessen the significant impacts of their greenhouse gas emissions. There is simply no good reason for Wal-Mart to refuse to incorporate solar panels into its store designs. That's why the Center for Biological Diversity is taking the massive corporation to court for its failure to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by new proposed Wal-Mart Supercenters in the Golden State.

Please sign our petition to Wal-Mart calling for it to follow the law and live up to its sustainability goal. And please forward this email to as many people as possible, so that the retail giant will hear loud and clear how many of us are outraged by its hypocritical business practices.

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Numerous Wind and Solar Power Plants Proposed in Kern County's Desert

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/518632.html

8/11/2008

...At least 27 wind farms have been proposed in eastern Kern County. The growth is due to several factors. Kern’s wind farms now generate 710 megawatts of wind energy, but that’s expected to grow by an additional 4,500 megawatts in the next decade due to the ongoing construction of Southern California Edison’s Tehachapi Transmission line project.

...There are no utility-scale solar plants in Kern County yet, though dozens have been proposed in the Mojave Desert as part of a massive land grab that’s taken place in recent years. In Kern, four projects are proposed for BLM land and two others are slated for private land in the desert.
The most promising so far is a solar thermal plant near California City proposed by Beacon Solar LLC that would supply electricity to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
eSolar, a solar startup backed by Google, is also planning to build a solar thermal plant in southeast Kern to supply Southern California Edison, according to the utility company. When contacted, eSolar officials declined to comment on the project.

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Solar Power Entrepreneurs are Bidding for Federal Land in the Mojave Desert

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/07/technology/woody_solar.fortune/index.htm

“The race has barely begun - finished plants are years away - but it's blazing fastest in the Mojave, where the federal government controls immense stretches of some of the world's best solar real estate right next to the nation's biggest electricity markets. Just 20 months ago only five applications for solar sites had been filed with the BLM in the California Mojave. Today 104 claims have been received for nearly a million acres of land, representing a theoretical 60 gigawatts of electricity. (The entire state of California currently consumes 33 gigawatts annually.)”

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Berkeley going solar - city pays up front, recoups over 20 years

Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 26, 2007

Berkeley is set to become the first city in the nation to help thousands of its residents generate solar power without having to put money up front - attempting to surmount one of the biggest hurdles for people who don't have enough cash to go green.

The City Council will vote Nov. 6 on a plan for the city to finance the cost of solar panels for property owners who agree to pay it back with a 20-year assessment on their property. Over two decades, the taxes would be the same or less than what property owners would save on their electric bills, officials say.

"This plan could be our most important contribution to fighting global warming," Mayor Tom Bates said Thursday. "We've already seen interest from all over the U.S. People really think this plan can go."

The idea is sparking interest from city and state leaders who are mindful of California's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. Officials in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica and several state agencies have contacted Berkeley about the details of its plan.
"If this works, we'd want to look at this for other cities statewide," said Ken Alex, California deputy attorney general. "We think it's a very creative way to eliminate the barriers to getting solar panels, and it's fantastic that Berkeley's going ahead with this."

for rest of story, click here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/26/MNAIT0DQO.DTL