September 23, 2014
By Carolyn Lochhead
Industrial-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects (click here) could be built within a few miles of national parks in the California desert as part of the Obama and Brown administrations’ efforts to combat climate change, under a mammoth plan released by federal and state officials Tuesday.
By Carolyn Lochhead
Industrial-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects (click here) could be built within a few miles of national parks in the California desert as part of the Obama and Brown administrations’ efforts to combat climate change, under a mammoth plan released by federal and state officials Tuesday.
Construction of the plants, many of which could cover several square miles, would drastically alter desert vistas near national parks and wilderness areas, according to a draft of the Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a joint state and federal project more than five years in the making.
But that would be offset by the climate-change benefits of allowing large solar and wind energy plants on more than 2million acres of the Mojave Desert, the report said.
The 8,000-page plan covers 22.5million acres of public and private land in the California desert, and was unveiled in Palm Springs by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell with Sen.Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and top state land management, energy and wildlife officials....
