I have long said that one of my main gripes with the AGW crowd is their obsession with this unproven hypothesis at the expense of dealing with real environmental degradation and real pollution. AGW sucks up all the oxygen in the room and people forget about the things we do that actually do harm the environment. The following article shows it's even worse than that though. Now AGW cult members are actively throwing the environment under the bus in the name of AGW. “I have spent my entire career thinking of myself as an advocate on behalf of public lands and acting for their protection,” said Johanna Wald, a veteran environmental attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I am now helping facilitate an activity on public lands that will have very significant environmental impacts. We are doing it because of the threat of climate change. It’s not an accommodation; it’s a change I had to make to respond to climate.” IVANPAH VALLEY, Calif. — Construction cranes rise like storks 40 stories above the Mojave Desert. In their midst, the “power tower” emerges, wrapped in scaffolding and looking like a multistage rocket. Clustered nearby are hangar-size assembly buildings, looming berms of sand and a chain mail of fencing that will enclose more than 3,500 public acres. Moorings for 173,500 mirrors — each the size of a garage door — are spiked into the desert floor. Before the end of the year, they will become six square miles of gleaming reflectors, sweeping from Interstate 15 to the Clark Mountains along California’s eastern border. BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar-power project will soon be a humming city with 24-hour lighting, a wastewater-processing facility and a gas-fired power plant. To make room, BrightSource has mowed down a swath of desert plants, displaced dozens of animal species and relocated scores of imperiled desert tortoises, a move some experts say could kill up to one-third of the reptiles. Despite its behemoth footprint, the Ivanpah project has slipped easily into place, unencumbered by lasting legal opposition or public outcry from California’s environmental community. The public got its chance to comment at scores of open houses, but the real political horse trading took place in meetings involving solar developers, federal regulators and leaders of some of the nation’s top environmental organizations. Away from public scrutiny, they crafted a united front in favor of utility-scale solar development, often making difficult compromises." http://www.seattletimes.com/busines...project-sacrifices-the-desert-for-the-earth/u
I agree with you, that focus on climate change does detract from other other environmental problems. Public lands are definitely an issue that we should continue to focus on. There is also no doubt that the Ivanpah Solar Power plant has had a number of issues. I think this plant is an important learning experience for the US, California, the DOE, and others. According to plant spokesmen, although there were delays, the plant is now producing at capacity. http://www.renewableenergyworld.com...t-ivanpah-improved-dramatically-nrg-says.html The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Southern California initially failed to meet contractual obligations, and a yearlong forbearance deal with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. expired Wednesday. After fine-tuning the complex facility that uses 170,000 mirrors, output is up and it’s no longer at risk of defaulting on the deal, according to David Knox, a spokesman for operator and co-owner NRG Energy Inc. “We are currently in compliance with the contract,” Knox said in an interview. “The generation has improved dramatically.”
Whether or not it's producing the advertised electricity it did so at great environmental cost and it's all in the name of AGW. True believers say screw the real environment, what I care about is carbon. It's their only concern and why I say they have joined a cult and become focused completely on one agenda at the expense of the overall environment. Suddenly C02 is the primary concern and if you had to dump millions of gallons of pollution into the ocean to lower C02 output by man they would say do it.
The link is a dead end but how much generating capacity will be produced from this 6 square mile area on a sunny day in the summer, a cloudy day in the winter, and at night (which is of course zero). Also it's a good thing they didn't try this in the Central Valley - it would have been quashed for fear of adversely affecting the Delta smelt.
Not so sure on the smelt thing. These AGW people would gladly sacrafice a fish in the name of C02. They bulldozed endangered desert tortoise populations without hesitation.
But these same people will close the water supply valves to the Central Valley putting thousands of low income earners out of work to save said fish. It would be interesting to see how the nut jobs in Sacramento would have responded to a 6 square mile solar installation. I guess tortoises beat fish ??
The left hates the farmers in California and they just used the smelt as a weapon against them. If Obama wanted solar plants in the central valley they would sacrafice these fish for the "greater good" in a heartbeat.
The "expense of the overall environment" is inflated by the Far Right News. Actually, Ivanpah Solar worked closely with regulatory agencies to satisfy the stringent requirements of California. http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2013_releases/2013-04-18_Ivanpah_Solar.pdf The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) and the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) owners have finalized a landmark agreement to purchase 7,000 acres of land under the state’s Advanced Mitigation Program (AMP) to satisfy the solar project’s land mitigation requirements. Ivanpah is the first renewable energy project to participate in the AMP since its inception in 2010. As far as CO2 is concerned, Renewable options are far better for all the aspects of the environment, than the fossil-fuel norm. Mining, fracking, drilling, leach ponds, fish kills, oil spills, etc, etc. I believe you are just barking to hear you voice...
Read the link in the OP again. The self avowed defender of the environment admitted he threw the environment under the bus in the name of AGW. Not to mention the give away and closing off to the public of thousands of acres of public land.
Agreed but this illustrates the complete situational hypocrisy of the left. They act against the corporate farms of CA but harm the low income workers (many of whom are illegal aliens). It's breathtaking to watch the irrational lack of clear thinking on display. Maybe one of the resident lib prog party of goodness members can explain this ??
The fake AGW agenda has virtually silenced all other REAL environmental topics and accordingly equates to a massive anti-environmentalism agenda. AGW is about gaining massive power and money for government, while other environmental real programs cost money. AGW is a massive diversion from environmental issues that are real and serious, such as the oceans being poisoned.
The National Climate assessment was written in 2014. The report details the impact of AGW on the US. The following is a list of the authors, reviewers and other experts associated with the report. So all these people are in cahoots to "gain massive power and money for government"? The National Climate Assessment summarizes the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. A team of more than 300 experts guided by a 60-member Federal Advisory Committee produced the report, which was extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.
Actually, I believe it did talk about some possible benefits. However, these benefits assume that one believes that AGW is not fake, like JakeJ implied. That's who I addressed the National Climate Assessment info to...
