Environmentalists scored a major victory to protect the Mojave Desert from development Thursday and there are strong indications the DWP will abandon its effort to build the Green Path North transimission line project.
At a meeting last week with community activists and environmentalists on solar energy, Deputy Mayor David Freeman said the Department of Water and Power's one strong suit is its distribution system and it is now likely to give up on Green Path North which has met strong opposition from desert residents.
Freeman once was DWP general manager and is now in charge of energy and environmental policy.
On Thursday, BrightSource Energy Inc. today said it has scrapped a controversial plan to build a major solar thermal power facility in eastern Mojave Desert wilderness that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument, according to Louis Sahagun of the LA Times.
The announcement ended a long-running dispute between backers of renewable energy and environmentalists strongly opposed to the idea of creating an industrial zone within 600,000 acres of former railroad lands that had been donated to the Department of Interior for conservation.
Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior advisor at VantagePoint Venture Partners, which raised $160 million for BrightSource, was pitted against David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, which raised $40 million to buy the railroad lands and protect them from development.
BrightSource wanted to build a solar power plant at Broadwell Dry Lake in a pristine area home to many varieties of desert plant and animal life.
“We have ceased all activity at the Broadwell site ... We will not build inside of a national monument.” BrightSource spokesman Keely Wachs said. “Our core mission is to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions. We share Sen. Feinstein’s values on this matter.”Elden Hughes, former chairman of the Sierra Club’s California-Nevada Desert Committee, called the company’s announcement “fantastic news.” “Broadwell is one of the most beautiful vistas in the desert. I’ve seen it covered with yellow flowers to the horizon in all directions.”
