Delicate truce in California’s deserts on shaky ground
LOS ANGELES – It looks like a barren no man’s land, but the vast desert outside Indio has many suitors.
Conservationists see its acres of creosote bush and cholla cactus as scarce habitat for tortoises, pronghorn antelope and an elusive variety of mule deer. Energy companies view its sunbaked plains and windswept ridgelines as prime perches for solar panels and wind turbines. Dirt tracks that wiggle across its sandy washes are testament to its popularity among off-road motorsports enthusiasts.
Until last year, all parties had reached something of an accord. Obamaera rules ensured that portions of California’s sunniest public lands would be reserved for conservation, other parts set aside for large-scale solar, wind and geothermal development and mining, and other sections designated for recreation.
But that delicate peace among competing interests could be upended.
In a stunning reversal, President Donald Trump one year ago ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to reopen study of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan and consider shrinking the areas it protects and expanding lands available for solar, wind, broadband infrastructure, mining, off-road vehicles and grazing.
Now, stakeholders are once again vying for control of some of the most sensitive and sought-after lands in the state – and the winners could determine whether California’s deserts become a hub for energy production at the expense of their unique plants and animals.
“Hornets are swarming because someone in Washington poked a hive in the California desert with a stick,” Greg Suba, conservation director for the California Native Plant Society, said. “We were making progress in striking a balance between development and conservation. Now, we’re spending all our time, energy and resources on dealing with chaos where there wasn’t any just a little while ago. It’s such a waste.”
The Obama administration spent eight years and considered more than 14,000 public comments in developing its plan for wind and solar projects and conservation. Unveiled in 2016, it set aside 3.9 million acres to be permanently protected, including the Silurian Valley and the Chuckwalla Bench. Another 1.4 Tom Egan holds leaves of an ironwood tree at Chuckwalla Bench on Feb. 28.
million acres were designated areas of critical environmental concern. And 388,000 acres were designated appropriate for commercial-scale renewable energy projects.
Trump’s executive order directs the Bureau of Land Management to review all actions that could “potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources” on public lands. A subsequent executive order, issued in January, directs the bureau to foster rural broadband infrastructure projects in the areas.
Though the Obama plan had its critics, including green-energy advocates who wanted more available land for development, the downright angry mood at ongoing public meetings
intended to solicit comments on Trump’s action suggests a thorny path ahead for the BLM.
The opening remarks of BLM officials at a recent meeting in the Owens Valley community of Lone Pine left conservationists including Michael Prather, a botanist, seething: People are encouraged to submit comments in writing, with the caveat that the volume of comments received by the agency will not determine their importance.
State leaders opposed to Trump’s action include U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird, California Energy Commissioner Karen Douglas and the California State Lands Commission – all of whom believe it could hurt clean energy development by triggering drawn-out legal battles.
“Had the state been consulted,” Douglas said in an interview, “we would have informed the federal government that reopening the plan will only serve to create uncertainty and unneeded delays for renewable energy projects on public lands.”
Tom Egan, California desert representative for the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, summarized the concerns of many conservationists this way: “Reopening the plan in places such as Chuckwalla Bench means green energy, mining, corporate investors, grazing and off-roaders win. Conservation loses.”
Trump’s move was a surprise to many, and a happy one for green-energy advocates, who contend that concerns about environmental damage are exaggerated and remind critics that the power they provide can help fight global warming.
The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan “fell short when it came to renewable energy by designating only a fraction of the area for development and ruling most of the remainder off-limits to renewable in perpetuity,” said Shannon Eddy, executive director of the Large-scale Solar Assn. It also “established exceedingly onerous siting requirements which make it difficult – if not impossible – for projects to build in areas designated for development.”
Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Association, said her industry would “welcome the opportunity to revisit how wind is treated.”
“We are extremely unhappy with the existing plan, which prohibits wind energy production in most of the windiest areas in the desert,” she said.
County officials are only beginning to fathom the consequences of conflicts in desert lands that could be economically beneficial, or costly and bitterly contested.
A big concern in rural Inyo County – home to about 18,000 people as well as blue-ribbon trout streams, stark rock formations, marshlands and desert plains – is that new wind and solar projects on adjacent public lands would infringe on its own plans for where such facilities will be tolerated.
Kern County, a state leader in energy production on private land, argues that more wind development on public lands “is unnecessary for achieving renewable energy goals in the West.”