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U.S. temporarily halts new solar projects
www.mercurynews.com ^ | 06-27-2008 | Dan Frosch

Posted on 06/27/2008 12:27:01 PM PDT by Red Badger

BUREAU TO STUDY IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT DENVER - Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies the environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years. Much of the 119 million surface acres of federally administered land in the West is ideal for solar energy, particularly in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Solar companies have filed more than 130 proposals with the Bureau of Land Management since 2005. They center on the companies' desires to lease public land to build solar plants, then sell the energy to utilities. According to the bureau, the applications, which cover more than 1 million acres, are for projects that have the potential to power more than 20 million homes. But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating. "This could completely stunt the growth of the industry," said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto. The manager of the bureau's environmental impact study, Linda Resseguie, said many factors must be considered when deciding whether to allow solar projects on the scale being proposed, among them the Advertisement impact of construction and transmission lines on native vegetation and wildlife.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: blm; energy; environment; fed; solar
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To all "alternate energy" enviros out there: This is your government at work................
1 posted on 06/27/2008 12:27:02 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

30 days is temporary. 2 years is not.


2 posted on 06/27/2008 12:29:17 PM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: Red Badger
Study, wait, study, wait.......DRILL AlREADY!!!!!!!!!!!
3 posted on 06/27/2008 12:29:53 PM PDT by FlashBack (www.proudpatriots.org/www.woundedwarriorproject.org/www.moveamericaforward.org)
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To: Red Badger
I'm no greenie, and I voted to pave the earth (yes, dammit, all of it).

But this does affect me and my income. Constitution says something about necessary forts and shipyards. I don't think the FedGov has the Constitutional power to take over millions of acres and hold them.

We damn sure shouldn't need a Burro-for-land-management.

Jack asses.

/johnny

4 posted on 06/27/2008 12:33:44 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Bless us all, each, and every one.)
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To: Red Badger

Wow. This industry may be in real trouble.


5 posted on 06/27/2008 12:34:21 PM PDT by TexanToTheCore (If it ain't Rugby or Bullriding, it's for girls.........................................)
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To: Red Badger
We can do that -- it will take X years!!

This isn't how America used to solve problems.

6 posted on 06/27/2008 12:34:59 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Et si omnes ego non)
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To: Red Badger

Surprise: ALL energy affects the environment, and re-directing it for our use affects the environment. COPE.


7 posted on 06/27/2008 12:35:02 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (The average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. - Ratatouille)
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To: FlashBack

I wonder how many square feet of solar panels it would take to equal one nuclear power plant and the square feet it would take up.


8 posted on 06/27/2008 12:35:29 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: Red Badger

Close the EPA.
Repeal the Endangered Species Act
Drill any place there is oil.
Build refineries.
Refine only one formulation of gasoline for each grade nation wide.
Build coal fired electric power plants.
Build nuclear powered electric power plants.

Drill Here Drill Now!


9 posted on 06/27/2008 12:37:26 PM PDT by Calamari (Pass enough laws and everyone is guilty of something.)
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To: Parley Baer

I think we ought to be building new Nukes too, that would take more pressure off the gas prices and not raise our food prices as a consequence.


10 posted on 06/27/2008 12:37:30 PM PDT by FlashBack (www.proudpatriots.org/www.woundedwarriorproject.org/www.moveamericaforward.org)
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To: Red Badger

“Enviromental impact studies” are jobs programs established for dumbasses who purchased college diplomas but are still dumber than a box of rocks.


11 posted on 06/27/2008 12:39:13 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (De-Globalize yourself !)
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To: Calamari

Turn Death Valley into a giant solar collector!


12 posted on 06/27/2008 12:39:33 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
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To: Red Badger

Ha ha


13 posted on 06/27/2008 12:39:37 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (If it is going to take 10 years, shouldn't we get started? Drill here, drill now, pay less.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
This isn't how America used to solve problems.

We still CAN get practically anything done, if the legions of useless bureaucrats would get out our way. (BTW, I believe there are no useless people, just useless jobs.)

WHY will it take 15 years to get ANWR oil? Because it'll take 13 years to get the studies approved and the permits issued!
14 posted on 06/27/2008 12:41:11 PM PDT by BikerJoe
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To: Red Badger

Are they worried it will suck too much light out of the sky?


15 posted on 06/27/2008 12:43:45 PM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: stuartcr

SPEWW!!!


16 posted on 06/27/2008 12:44:26 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Red Badger

GREEDY POWER-MONGERING TREASONOUS PUPPET MASTERS seem to have struck again.


17 posted on 06/27/2008 12:47:36 PM PDT by Quix (WE HAVE THE OIL NOW http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147)
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To: stuartcr

LOL!!....


18 posted on 06/27/2008 12:47:54 PM PDT by Red Badger (If we drill deep enough, we can reach the Saudi oil fields from THIS side..........)
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To: ctdonath2

That’s not really the issue. They don’t give that much of a flip for the environment—that’s just a manipulative political tool.

Their determination is to CONTROL!!! CONTROL!!! CONTROL!!! THE SERFS though CENTRALIZED power schemes . . . electric, gasoline, natural gas . . . all.


19 posted on 06/27/2008 12:49:06 PM PDT by Quix (WE HAVE THE OIL NOW http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147)
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To: Red Badger

Truth be told, the land they were going to build the magic solar power plants on was discovered to have massive deposits of upsadaisium.


20 posted on 06/27/2008 12:51:20 PM PDT by HIDEK6
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