Environmentalists Protest Solar Development
Sep 8th, 2012
We might not agree with everything they say, and really wish they would think about the destruction caused to Earth by manufacturing solar panels… but at least these groups are trying to stop a massive solar project in the southwest.
From East County Magazine
Seeking to prevent massive and irreversible environmental damage, numerous environmental groups have filed formal protests against the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States.
“We want the public to know that several conservation groups are not planning to go down easily on the Interior Department’s plan to destroy up to 20 million acres of southwest deserts, not even including the wind projects,” Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council i(DPC) in San Diego told ECM. DPC is a co-founder of Solar Done Right, one of the environmental groups that filed a protest.
The formal protests against the final Solar PEIS are laying the groundwork for settlement talks or lawsuits, shes noted, adding, “I am pretty sure that Western Lands Project, Solar Done Right, Basin and Range Watch, and Western Watersheds will NOT settle.”
PEIR was prepared by the U.S. Departments of the interior and Energy and aims to “facilitate utility-scale solar energy development on public lands.”
Citing the need to focus solar development on degraded lands and in the already built environment, Western Lands Project, Basin and Range Watch, and Solar Done Right filed the appeal on Friday, according to a press release sent by the organizations. KCET news reports that at least three additional groups, Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds have also lodged formal complaints.