‘Greens’ slowing green-power growth (Sept. 21)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
If you are among those who think we as a nation should do all we can to increase our use of renewable energy sources, raise your hand (my hand is up, too). Well, if you are one of those, prepare to be disappointed. It isn’t going to happen, at least not while most of us on this planet are still alive.
A case in point was played out recently in the Broadwell Valley of California’s Mojave Desert, which is probably the best place on earth to site a solar array plant, such as the private company Brightsource was interested in building on 5,000 acres of long-unused former railroad and now government property.
This property, reportedly some 5,000 acres, is basically barren desert. Its only asset is sunshine, and plenty of it.
The solar plant, in the form of rows of parabolic mirrors that would have focused the sun’s rays on a boiler atop a tower, would have produced 500 megawatts of electricity with solar-heated steam, about enough to power 400,000 homes.
But California Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-San Francisco, put the kibosh on the proposal. She wants the land for a national monument, never mind that the desert already is full of national monuments, including Death Valley and Joshua Tree.
Brightsource has withdrawn its plans, and along with it any chances the state may have had for moving forward right away with its plan to generate a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
So-called environmentalists, who want green energy, ironically are making it ever harder to site green power plants.
Solar plants, wind farms and dams with hydroelectric capacity are almost impossible to put up these days because some people, using “the environment” as an excuse, don’t want them in their back yards, no matter how useful they may be.
