Environmental groups see desert solar power plant as key testApr 7 - Jim Steinberg San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.The clock is ticking on the written public comment period on an application to build a solar power plant on more than 7,000 acres of what environmentalists say is critical land uniting Death Valley and the Mojave Preserve. Michael Gordon, a professional photographer from Long Beach, described the area in a recent public hearing on the solar plant as "far from the madding metropolitan crowds of Las Vegas and Los Angeles that surround it" and a place of special, quiet beauty. Others opposed to the solar plant said the area serves as a "recharge zone" for weary city dwellers to boost their spirit. Environmentalists say this is the first time in California that the federal Bureau of Land Management has been asked to permit a solar plant on land outside what the agency set aside for solar projects in 2011. Therefore, the decision will be precedent-setting, said David Lamfrom, California desert senior program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. If the proposed 200-megawatt solar photovoltaic project is approved, Lamfrom and other activists say more power plant proposals will pop up in the area surrounding this plant proposed by Portland, Ore.,-based Iberdrola Renewables. Opposition to this power plant in the remote Silurian Valley, 10 miles north of Baker near Highway 127, came to the public hearing held in Barstow late last month. The Greater Los Angeles Area was solidly represented by Gordon and others at two public hearing sessions in Barstow late last month. The deadline for written comments to the BLM is April 28. Comments should be submitted to: Katrina Symons, BLM Barstow field manager, 2601 Barstow Road, Barstow, CA, 92311, or by email at silurian_valley_solar@blm.gov. Several people spoke in favor of the project, including Mike Roddy of Yucca Valley, who said the battle against global warming mandates the construction of this plant, and Bill De Witt, a South Gate councilman, who said the project will bring jobs and development to the depressed Baker area. De Witt said he owns property adjacent to land proposed for the plant. Although the opposition criticized the location for the solar plant, K. Harley McDonald, a senior business developer with Iberdrola, said the proposed solar plant was "well sited," being near high-capacity interstate transmission lines. Although the site is not in the BLM's designated area, McDonald said that Iberdrola put its application in for the Silurian Valley site before the state finalized its Desert Renewable Conservation Plan. McDonald said the site acreage is deliberately set above what will be needed to allow the company flexibility on the shape and location of the solar plant. The surplus land will return to BLM use, she said. The site is "a low conflict area for desert plants, tortoises and bats. We are not seeing any red flags right now," McDonald said, referring to the biological significance of the area. It is also not a pristine area, as it has been used by off-road vehicles and hunters. "We won't need to use that much," McDonald said. But a few shotgun shells on the desert floor don't detract from the natural value of the property, "which is a critical connective tissue" between Death Valley and the Mojave, said Kevin Emmeril of Beatty, Nev. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=32075635& |