Feds lease prime solar land, but nary a panel is in sight
Ready for your morning bowl of crazy? Five years ago, Congress set
aside millions of acres of public land in the Southwest for the
development of solar farms. This was primo real estate for solar,
considered one of the best spots in the world. So far not one solar
panel has been erected.
Oh, you want us to build something? This
discouraging news
comes courtesy of the AP's Jason Dearen, whose investigation shows
that the understaffed U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) focused
almost all its time on approving oil and gas projects and leased the
land on a first-come, first-served basis, often to outfits with little
or no experience in actually building solar farms. Case in point:
Cogentrix Solar Services, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. Cogentrix had
zero solar experience, but holds leases on nearly half the Nevada
acreage for which applications have been filed. Another sickening stat:
In the last five years, the BLM has approved more than 73,000 oil and
gas leases on public land,
but hasn't given final approval to one solar lease. Not a
one. Writes Dearen:
BLM's solar leasing system ended up allowing developers to lay
claim to prime sites -- many located in the deserts that span
California, Nevada, and Arizona. All developers had to do was fill
out an application, pay a fee and file development plans. But many
were so vague that it was difficult for BLM to separate the serious
projects from the speculative ones.
The oilman cometh: Bad enough that Sen. Lisa
Murkowski's (Alaska) primary loss to Joe Miller likely means another
Republican climate change denier ranting in the Senate. Another negative
ripple effect is that Murkowski's place as ranking Republican on the
powerful Senate Energy Committee probably will be taken by
North Carolina's Richard Burr. You may remember Burr. He was one of
the senators singled out in a
League of Conservation Voters video campaign this summer as
particularly chummy with Big Oil. A fan of off-shore drilling, Burr has
earned a dismal 7 percent voting score from the League. He also ranks
eighth in the Senate in terms of receiving oil and gas money -- almost
$220,000 in this election cycle alone. For a good cry, look at his
track record on climate and energy.
This party's over: Not that it did a lot of good,
but the short run of Democrats as the ruling party in Congress looks to
be coming to an inglorious end.
The latest Gallup Poll of registered voters shows Republicans with a
10 percentage point lead. That just happens to be the largest margin
since Gallup started tracking mid-term elections. It gets worse:
a USA Today/Gallup Poll released yesterday suggests that
when it comes to handling the economy, the top issue for most Americans
these days, 49 percent think Republicans would do a better job, compared
to 38 percent for Democrats.
This White House and this Congress is demonizing them -- the new
drilling moratorium, the new energy taxes -- all of that is costing
us tens of thousands of jobs in the middle of what's supposed to be
a recovery, but it's a very poor one.
Class dismissed: One thing you can say about Tea
Partiers -- they know what they want in a candidate. To help decide on
endorsements, a Tea Party group near Sandusky, Ohio asked local
candidates whether they agreed or disagreed with
position statements on issues ranging from gay marriage to shutting
down the Federal Reserve. Global warming also made the hit list. Here's
the survey's climate change statement that candidates responded to:
The regulation of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere should be left
to God and not government and I oppose all measures of Cap and Trade
as well as the teaching of global warming theory in our schools.
With friends like these: It's one thing for
Greenpeace to
battle with a company drilling for oil in the Arctic. But
Facebook? Isn't the site just trying to get everyone on the planet
to hold hands? Well, it turns out that the giant social network plans to
build a huge data storage center in Oregon. Two-thirds of the power for
that operation will come from coal. Not only has Greenpeace cried foul,
but it says it has rallied 500,000 people to join Facebook groups that
are insisting the data center use only renewable energy.
Air transplants: How bad is the smog in Hong Kong?
So bad that
a green group is now selling fresh air. For just 25 cents, the Fresh
Air Network will sell you a baby-blue canister that comes with a
breathing mask and a hit of air. Plus, you have a choice of flavors,
like vanilla or beach.