According to the San Jose Mercury News, Panoche Valley is a treeless expanse in central California with 90 percent of the solar intensity of the Mojave Desert.
The Audobon Society is complain Panoche Valley is not appropriate for a solar farm. (Photo Mercury News)
Several endangered species make their homes there: the San Joaquin fox, the blunt-nose leopard lizard. One hundred and thirty species of birds come and go.
The unusual wildlife may not make waterless valley the ideal spot for one of the world’s largest solar farms. But the available sunshine does. So where does the 420 MW project – about 60 miles south of Silicon Valley – stand? It is opposed by the Audubon Society, which complains the environmental impact of large-scale developments isn’t known.
Earlier this week, the environmentally conscious Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a bill creating two national monuments in the Mojave Desert. The legislation, if adopted, will have a similar squelching affect on the development of alternative energy. It will effectively chase a dozen planned solar and wind farms from the parch, sunshine intensive landscape.
NIMBYism is on the rise against alternative energy at a time when the nation needs to be rushing toward non-fossil-fuel-based energy. The danger is that this not-in-my-backyard sentiment will make renewable energy targets hard to hit and put American competitiveness at a disadvantage through continued reliance on oil and traditional energy sources.
The list of projects under attack is lengthening. In West Virginia, the endangered species act was wielded to squash a wind farm when environmentalists feared the habitat of the Indiana bat would be encroached.
Proposed legislation will chase a dozen proposed wind and solar plants from the Mojave Desert
In Michigan, neighbors began howling when a massive wind farm was planned for Lake Michigan. The gargantuan 1 GW farm is proposed for a 100-square-mile tract of the lake, with some turbines only a few miles from shore.
The consistently strong winds of the Great Lakes make them one of the nation’s top sources of renewable energy. However, according to the Detroit Free Press, residents complained that the 100 turbines would create an eyesore and chase away tourists.
With the growing grassroots rejection of renewable energy, the nation will have a harder time playing its part in the fight against global warming. Already environmental leaders such as Robert Kennedy have spoken up, complaining the Mojave Desert shouldn’t be barred from development without a thorough environmental review.
But many battles will be fought at the state and local level. There, compromises are probably going to need to be made. After all, the alternative is more coal and natural-gas fired power plants – and more imported oil.
Only the oil companies are in favor of that.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
