Burning Man cheers county’s overturning geothermal permit

RENO, NEV. >> County commissioners have rescinded an energy company’s permit to drill exploratory wells for a geothermal project in the Nevada desert near the site of the annual Burning Man counterculture festival about 110 miles north of Reno.

Officials for the Burning Man organization and others who have filed suit in U.S. District Court to block Ormat Technologies’ exploration in the Black Rock Desert say the move puts the project on hold indefinitely and could scuttle it all together.

The Washoe County Commission voted 3-2 this week to overturn the permit that the county’s Board of Adjustment approved in January to allow for the drilling of up to 13 geothermal test wells in the area near Gerlach, a town of about 130.

Opponents of the project say it could jeopardize the town’s water supply and detract from the remote area’s natural beauty.

“Gerlach’s very existence is threatened by the Ormat geothermal development,” Allen Nash, vice president of the Gerlach Volunteer Fire Department and member of a county citizens advisory board, told the commission before Tuesday night’s vote.

The project “runs the risk of changing a spectacular mountain vista into a spectacular vista of an industrial plant,” said Seth Schrenzel, a local business owner and trustee for the Gerlach General Improvement District.

The nonprofit Burning Man Project based in San Francisco said in a statement that the commission’s decision delays the project “for a substantial period of time and could result in it never moving forward.”

“This community stood up and made a difference. Burning Man is pleased to have played a role in protecting the town and this special wilderness we call home,” said Marnee Benson, the organization’s director of government affairs.

Ormat Technologies didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Reno-based company is already involved in a lengthy federal court battle over a geothermal power plant it wants to build about 100 miles east of Reno.