oh the irony. . . solar power plant derailed by protection of desert tortoise

#1
D

droski

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#1
Spot The Tortoise? - Forbes.com

Last October BrightSource Energy began construction on the first large-scale solar thermal power plant to be built in the U.S. in two decades. After an arduous three-year environmental review, a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee and more than a half-billion dollars in investment from the likes of Google ( GOOG - news - people ), Morgan Stanley ( MS - news - people ) and NRG Energy ( NRG - news - people ), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at a sunny groundbreaking ceremony in Nipton, Calif., in the Mojave Desert. The 370-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, they proclaimed, heralded a clean, green energy future.

Biologists with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which leases the land to BrightSource, concluded that the project would "harass" 2,325 mostly juvenile tortoises living within a 2-kilometer radius outside the site in the Ivanpah Valley, where another company, First Solar ( FSLR - news - people ), intends to construct two huge generating stations.
 
#4
#4
droski said:
Spot The Tortoise? - Forbes.com

Last October BrightSource Energy began construction on the first large-scale solar thermal power plant to be built in the U.S. in two decades. After an arduous three-year environmental review, a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee and more than a half-billion dollars in investment from the likes of Google ( GOOG - news - people ), Morgan Stanley ( MS - news - people ) and NRG Energy ( NRG - news - people ), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at a sunny groundbreaking ceremony in Nipton, Calif., in the Mojave Desert. The 370-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, they proclaimed, heralded a clean, green energy future.

Biologists with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which leases the land to BrightSource, concluded that the project would "harass" 2,325 mostly juvenile tortoises living within a 2-kilometer radius outside the site in the Ivanpah Valley, where another company, First Solar ( FSLR - news - people ), intends to construct two huge generating stations.
Click to expand...

Kinda like the bird vs windpower folks.
 
#5
#5
when a belief system is at odds with itself

"We have to have sex to save the friendship?"
 
#7
#7
Why does this not surprise me. The amount of land needed to generate 1000 MW of solar power would take up enough land to cover Davidson and Wilson counties probably. Of course there are going to be environmental impacts.
 
#9
#9
Saw a story like this on the news a couple of weeks ago about the stoppage of construction on oil wells because of a lizard.
 
#10
#10
St. George, UT maybe the fastest growing city in the state. The problem is it has nowhere to grow. The desert tortoise has restricted outward growth and an ordinance preventing anybody from building an edifice taller than the Mormon temple (it's not very tall) has prevented the city from growing upward. I find it hilarious.
 
#11
#11
philly had an ordinance like that where no building was to be taller than William Penn's statue on top of a building, blocking his view, so they just built up behind his back.
 
#12
#12
Another problem with solar - one that should receive more attention - is that pesky little thing called cadmium telluride.

Cadmium telluride photovoltaics

Imagine if Fukushima had been a solar field instead of a nuclear power plant. Instead of a nuclear meltdown, the Pacific Ocean would have received a healthy dose of one of the most toxic materials on the planet.
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#13
#13
dreVol said:
Another problem with solar - one that should receive more attention - is that pesky little thing called cadmium telluride.

Cadmium telluride photovoltaics

Imagine if Fukushima had been a solar field instead of a nuclear power plant. Instead of a nuclear meltdown, the Pacific Ocean would have received a healthy dose of one of the most toxic materials on the planet.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
Click to expand...

That's not a problem with this form of solar. This is a solar thermal facility, not photovoltaics.
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#14
#14
The IPCC just pulled another huge gaff.

A blunder of staggering proportions by the IPCC | Watts Up With That?

Mark Lynas: Home climate change New IPCC error: renewables report conclusion was dictated by Greenpeace

Additionally, some of the greenpeacers have created
a company that through a grant from the world
bank, have bought the carbon credit rights to a
huge tract of Amazon forest and hope to collect
over $60 billion through a UN program called REDD.
(reduced emissions developing coutries deforestation,
or something like that.)

Who said 'green on the outside, red in the middle?'

Just recently Obama's fruitcake head of the EPA
went balistic when some utility company said that
new regulations would force the loss of hundreds of
jobs and increase costs by hundreds of millions which
would have to be passed on to consumers.

This week Obama issued an executive order concerning
rural areas of this country that dovetails with the UN
agenda 21.

Meanwhile the media focuses on really important
things like Anthony Weiner tweets.
 
#17
#17
Oil CEO: “We can create jobs” Hot Air

“I was very concerned about the tax proposals in the Menendez bill that came forward that day because i never thought I would see the day when an administration and more than half the U.S. senate would propose a tax bill that actually would disadvantage 132-year-old company like Chevron relative to Russian, Chinese, French, Italian and other companies, not just outside the united states, but inside the united states of America. So we did push back on bills that were being critical trying to impose punitive taxes on our business. We can create jobs, we can play a positive role and that’s my message.”
Click to expand...

Obama Backs EPA War on Coal, While Networks Ignore Harm to Industry | Energy and Environment Right Side News

(lengthy article but worth reading, particularly why is this not covered by the media?)

President Obama "threatened to bankrupt" the coal industry with cap-and-trade legislation. Now his EPA is making good on that threat through regulation.

In a January 2008 interview, Obama said: "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."
Click to expand...
 
#21
#21
JTrainDavis said:
Had an issue here where they wanted windmills in a hawk migration corridor, in some cases I agree with the decisions to end the projects.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
Click to expand...

I read the other day that wind turbines in the
San Fransissyco Bay area kill 60 endangered
Golden Eagles a year.

Enviros just got a setback from the Supreme Court.

Hansen’s “death train” argument denied as a “nuisance” | Watts Up With That?

After all the caterwauling from Hansen about coal
“death trains”, and his defense of criminal mischief
at a power plant in the UK, this is a real “mud in
your eye” moment and an affirmation that no one
industry can be singled out as a scapegoat for
global warming, climate change, climate disruption.
------------------------

The Supreme Court today unanimously rejected the
effort by some states to sue utilities for greenhouse
gas emissions on the basis of the nuisance doctrine,
holding that the Clean Air Act pre-empts federal
common law.
Click to expand...

us-life-expectancy-era-of-hansen-death-trains.png


Too late though for the TVA, Obama's TVA board
elected to settle such suits out of court, shut
down many coal fired plants and pay out at least
$10 million, both moves are going to increase rates
for customers.

We keep rebuilding energy plants in Afghanistan,
which the moslems keep blowing up so they can
extort money from the contractors who are chosen
to rebuild and we are shutting down plants and
mines here in America.

I guess that makes sense to some people, or they
wouldn't be doing it. :loco:
 
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