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Page 13 In addition to aesthetics, many people are concerned about the environmental costs of green energy projects. One of the first large-scale solar projects in the Inland Empire is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Facility, currently under construction in northern San Bernardino County. The project, owned and designed by BrightSource Energy Company with the help of a $1.375 billion dollar loan from the United States Department of Energy, was recently approved after years of debate over its environmental impact. A key issue was the project’s impact on the desert tortoise.
Renewable Energy’s Future in the Inland Empire
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n April 12, 2011 Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a mandate that one-third of electricity in California must come from renewable sources by 2020. California had previously required investor-owned utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from clean sources by 2010, with a three year grace period. The new law raises the requirement to 33 percent and will also apply to municipal utilities, which manage about a quarter of the state’s electricity load. In the coming years the Inland Empire should emerge as a key player in California’s push toward meeting this mandate due to the region’s abundant available land, sun, and high wind. California currently lags behind other western states in its quest to expand production of green energy. There are four primary impediments to its growth: aesthetics, environmental concerns, huge acreage requirements, and cost. Even many people who support renewable energy object to the sight of power lines or wind farms in their own neighborhoods. This issue came up recently in Chino Hills, where Southern California Edison is constructing power lines and poles as close as 75 feet to some homes to bring wind-generated energy from Kern County to the Los Angeles area. Residents are rallying against Edison concerned that the project will lower property values, destroy trees and land, and risk toppling towers onto homes. Edison counters that the new power lines are necessary because existing power lines are at full capacity. Continued construction of green energy will not make sense without sufficient infrastructure to transmit power from the generation site to the place where people use it.
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The desert tortoise was considered “threatened” for several decades before this project began. It is prone to various diseases, vulnerable to many predators, and also has very specific habitat requirements. Moreover, the desert tortoise has not withstood past attempts to alter its habitat. As part of the expansion of Fort Irwin military base in the Mojave Desert, the Army was required to relocate the desert tortoise to unoccupied lands. But the $8.7 million effort to relocate over 760 tortoises proved unsuccessful. Many tortoises died quickly from attacks photo: Brad Mitzelfelt, san bernardino county supervisor by new predators like the coyote, increased spread of disease likely due to the tortoises’ close proximity to each other during transport, as well as injuries inflicted by humans and cars.
There are four primary impediments to the growth of renewable energy: aesthetics, environmental concerns, huge acreage requirements, and cost.
Flash forward to the BrightSource solar project. Conservationists are extremely worried about the desert tortoise’s continued survival. A preconstruction study of the area found only 16 tortoises in a 5.6-square-mile area surveyed. Yet when construction actually began in late 2010, biologists hired by BrightSource found 23 tortoises in the first 2 square-mile area to be developed, with an additional 18 found very near the project area. While the company has taken pains not to reproduce the overcrowding and potential disease spreading transport methods utilized by Fort Irwin, a number of tortoises have already died. This spring another tortoise round up and relocation will begin and conservationists anxiously await the results. San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt was initially opposed to BrightSource’s construction plan for a number of reasons, including the impact on the desert tortoise. In a phone interview, Supervisor Mitzelfelt expressed his view that “[we] need to adopt a more aggressive
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