Project already blading Mojave desert habitat
Google announces its private investment in Brightsource Energy, the proponent of the controversial Ivanpah Solar Thermal Project:
Google Solar Project: Google Invests $168 Million In Mojave Power Plant – Huffington Post
The commitment announced Monday is part of the financing that BrightSource Energy needs to build a solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert.
A BrightSource contractor working on the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station in California’s Mojave Desert kills a Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera) that was likely between 400-800 years old.
This comes shortly after the Bureau of Land Management announced that the Ivanpah Solar Thermal Plant would likely displace as many as four times the number of Endangered Species Act protected Mojave Desert tortoise as previously estimated:
The Bureau of Land Management has increased the estimate of how many desert tortoises will be displaced by the Ivanpah solar plant in southern California just southwest of Las Vegas. The previous estimate was that there would only be 32-38 tortoises displaced by the development. They now estimate that there will be 140 of the endangered tortoises displaced by the 5.6 square mile development.
Desert tortoise advocates await a decision on Western Watersheds Project’s lawsuit seeking to halt the Ivanpah project to protect the tortoises and the myriad of other environmental values the project threatens to destroy.
Our previous coverage of the Ivanpah Solar Thermal development.
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Brian Ertz
Hm. Is this the same BLM that is purposely endangering native species of wild horses and burros, displacing them with non-native cattle so we humans can munch steaks on and on and on … and oil pipelines so we humans can drive on and on and on? That BLM?
The following question is off subject but where, from an enviro. point of view, is the most desirable place to locate “solar energy plants? If one desregards distance from population centers, isn’t the “Great Salt Lake Flats” one of the most desirable places given that there is little or no plant or animal life that will be adversley effected?