California Desert Tortoises

AP Enterprise: Enviros, Rivals Strike Odd Peace

Long before studies showed one of the world's largest solar projects could harm or kill more than 1,100 tortoises in the Mojave Desert, the threatened creature's longtime champion already had signed off on the project.

Months earlier, the Center for Biological Diversity had agreed not to sue or challenge Oakland-based BrightSource Energy Co.'s project — expected to cost $2 billion — in exchange for additional protections and a swath of desert tortoise habitat elsewhere. Any finer points of the deal remain a mystery because the agreement is confidential.

The unusual deal is one of several that environmental groups have cut in recent years, offering silence or support for a project in exchange land or money towards conservation efforts. While such settlements aren't new, experts say they are larger and more controversial as environmental groups have become powerful enough to stall or derail projects and are more willing to settle.

Some conservationists have blasted the October agreement but attorneys for the center and BrightSource stand by it, saying that once new tortoise habitat is purchased, the location of that land, but no other details, will be made public.

"I'd rather us get beat up a bit for having a 'secret agreement' that actually leads to additional tortoise habitat than one less likely to lead to those protections," said Brendan Cummings, an attorney for the nonprofit who helped craft the deal.

Workers in the desert scrub of the Ivanpah Valley, which has long been habitat for threatened tortoises, will install thousands of mirrors that will focus sunlight into three towers to produce steam and generate electricity. At peak capacity the $2 billion solar project, which is expected to be completed by 2013, will generate enough electricity for 140,000 homes.

The desert tortoise is the state reptile, a slow-moving herbivore found in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. The creatures do not reproduce very quickly with females breeding at 15 to 20 years old and often only if there is enough food. Since the 1950s, desert tortoise populations have reportedly decreased by 90 percent and in 1990 were listed as federally threatened.

BrightSource has hired as many as 100 biologists to find and relocate tortoises found on the solar project's 3,500-acre construction site in San Bernardino County. The company has also been X-raying female tortoises to see if they're carrying eggs. Those eggs have been placed in nurseries to hatch and the young tortoises have been kept in pens to increase their survival rate.

BLM taking public comment on proposed 300-MW Stateline Solar ...

Through September 6, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting public comment on First Solar Inc.‘s (NASDQ: FSLR) proposed 300-megawatt Stateline Solar Farm. The proposed 2,000-acre solar farm in San Bernardino County is close to the Ivanpah Solar Project under construction and the California-Nevada border.

This is the initial public comment period based on First Solar ’s right-of-way application for the project, according to BLM spokesperson David Briery. It was issued as the BLM published a notice of intent to review the potential environmental impacts of the solar farm.

“This is the initial public scoping. There will be other opportunities for public comments,” he said.

If approved. the site could take advantage of the nearby historical transmission lines, which already is being upgraded as part of BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Project , according to Briery.

The upgrade will impact the El Dorado Substation owned by California Edison.

“It’s the original line from the Hoover Dam,” Briery said. “The line was built in the 1920s.”

The line originally carried electricity from Los Angeles to the Hoover Dam site.

Like the Ivanpah project, the Stateline project could impact the desert tortoise.

“Most of the controversy [around Ivanpah] was about the number of desert tortoises that were found in that area,” Briery said. “The desert tortoise will be highly scrutinized in writing the environmental impact statement [EIS],” he said.

The project proposal could include amending the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan based on the site’s suitability for solar development. The effects of the project could also include amending the CDCA Plan and the Las Vegas Resource Management Plan, according to the BLM.

It’s too early to tell when the Stateline proposal will move forward, or even when BLM will issue the Draft EIS, according to BLM Planning & Environmental Coordinator Jeffery Childers, MPA.

“BLM will release the Draft EIS and plan amendment after the scoping period closes and all of the issues have been fully analyzed. It is too early in the process to tie down a date; however, we anticipate a draft release either late this year or early 2012,” Childers said.

Image courtesy of First Solar.