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Feinstein seeks monument status for desert swath
AP on Mercury News ^ | 3/20/09 | Kevin Freking - ap

Posted on 03/20/2009 7:20:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 500,000 acres in the Mojave Desert would be off-limits to wind or solar energy production under legislation Sen. Dianne Feinstein intends to introduce. The land is coveted by companies seeking to develop alternative energy, setting up a potential clash with one of the more powerful members of Congress.

The land would seem ideally suited for solar energy production. Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on the property, but such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public, said Feinstein, the California Democrat.

The Wildlands Conservancy orchestrated the government's purchase of the land between 1999-2004. It negotiated a discount sale from the real estate arm of the former Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad and then contributed $40 million to help pay for the purchase. David Myers, the conservancy's executive director, said the solar projects would do great harm to the region's desert tortoise population.

"It would destroy the entire Mojave Desert ecosystem," said David Myers, executive director of The Wildlands Conservancy.

Feinstein said the lands in question were donated or purchased with the intent that they would be protected forever. But the Bureau of Land Management considers the land now open to all types of development, except mining.

That policy led the state to consider large swaths of the land for future renewable energy production.

"This is unacceptable," Feinstein said in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "I urge you to direct the BLM to suspend any further consideration of leases to develop former railroad lands for renewable energy or for any other purpose."

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: 111th; brightsource; calenergy; desert; energy; feinstein; mojave; mojavedesert; monument; status; wind
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1 posted on 03/20/2009 7:20:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: calcowgirl
I wonder if this is anywhere near Chocolate Mountain?
2 posted on 03/20/2009 7:22:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
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To: NormsRevenge

I thought they wanted alternative energy?


3 posted on 03/20/2009 7:22:28 PM PDT by Jaidyn
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To: Jaidyn

If you only knew of the long term objectives of some politicos out here. 8-o


4 posted on 03/20/2009 7:23:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Snicker!


5 posted on 03/20/2009 7:24:33 PM PDT by saganite (What would Sully do?)
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To: Jaidyn

The Dems want no energy for America, no matter the source.


6 posted on 03/20/2009 7:24:52 PM PDT by HoosierHawk (Democrats - Looting American citizens for generations to come.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Allow me to redo the headline

Diane Feinstein seeks massive campaign contributions for the DNC, NDSC, NDCC, moveon, and any other front for the democrat party, so they can be bought off to APPROVE the use of government land for porkbarrel green projects..
7 posted on 03/20/2009 7:24:57 PM PDT by Fred (Proud Member of the Obama Enemies List)
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To: Jaidyn

They want alternative energy....
As long as they don’t have to see it and as long as stupid birds don’t smash into it.


8 posted on 03/20/2009 7:25:16 PM PDT by LegendHasIt (Freepmail me if you want to join the Precious Metals ping list.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Probably some toad or rat who would be offended by having a windmill in their back yard. She just trying to protect the little worthless things as usual.


9 posted on 03/20/2009 7:25:54 PM PDT by w1andsodidwe (Jimmy Carter(the Godfather of Terror) allowed radical Islam to get a foothold in Iran.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Remember back in the day when libs were screaming about solar power? Now even this is too much for them.


10 posted on 03/20/2009 7:30:14 PM PDT by LuxAerterna
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To: NormsRevenge

To hell with wind power, open it up to mining!!!!


11 posted on 03/20/2009 7:33:08 PM PDT by dalereed
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a little background re: Chocolate Mountain and some landswapping 15 years ago. anything involving dichifi should be highly suspect for motive.

other things may be afoot if the pattern holds.

who wants solar when you can have gold?

THE GREAT GOLD HEIST
The Desert Wilderness Protection Act
by Karen Lee Bixman
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/bixman_20010615.html

FRom December 29, 2003
Catellus Development
The Octopus Reborn?
http://www.counterpunch.org/trainor12292003.html


12 posted on 03/20/2009 7:34:04 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Congress has effectively ran off manufacturing with heavy regulations (under cover of labor costs), spent trillions of dollars (hear that tax train coming?) and will effectively gut our electrical grid with the pseudo-science of Global Hysteria, alternative energy (read non-reliable and expensive) and cap and trade schemes (your electrical bill will double) and the topper will be runaway inflation to eat up any savings you do have. Now that’s CHANGE!! America. You voted for it. Enjoy.


13 posted on 03/20/2009 7:34:11 PM PDT by BipolarBob (When do we call Obama "Dear Leader" and learn the new salute?)
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To: HoosierHawk
The Dems want no energy for America, no matter the source.

Which is kinda interesting, since their political power is derived from the American economy ... once that economy is wrecked, where will they derive any of their remaining political power from?

Dems are suicidal if ya ask me .....

14 posted on 03/20/2009 7:37:18 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
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To: NormsRevenge
Feinstein said the lands in question were donated or purchased with the intent that they would be protected forever. But the Bureau of Land Management considers the land now open to all types of development, except mining.

Which is why the Government shouldn't own land.

15 posted on 03/20/2009 7:42:15 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: NormsRevenge; ElkGroveDan

I dunno. But isn’t this the BrightSource location? (Tamminen and RFKjrs enterprise)


16 posted on 03/20/2009 7:42:59 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: NormsRevenge

B build
A absolutely
N nothing
A anywhere
N near
A anyone


17 posted on 03/20/2009 7:52:53 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: NormsRevenge

It looks like this was the land they gave up in exchange for gold in the Chocolate Mountain heist

http://www.wildlandsconservancy.org/projects_cal.html

TWC Projects: California Desert Land Acquisition

To encourage our nation’s western expansion, in 1864 Congress gave the railroad every other section of public land in a 50-mile swath along what are now Interstate 40 and Route 66. SF Pacific Properties placed billboards reading “For Sale or Development” across the California desert on these former railroad lands between Barstow and Needles. SF Pacific Properties’ California holdings represented some of the most pristine and scenic desert lands in the world, with its cinder cones and lava flows, spectacular ranges of rock and flowing sand dunes, vast valleys and intriguing cactus gardens. Private sale of these lands would have severely impacted biological and aesthetic integrity, as well as recreational access for more than 4 million acres of public lands, due to the checker-boarded configuration of the lands owned by SF Pacific Properties.

In July 1999, The Wildlands Conservancy acquired an option on 437,000 acres by negotiating an $18 million discount with the parent company of SF Pacific Properties, Catellus Development Corporation. Thanks to the support of TWC donors, the U.S. Department of the Interior acquired 405,206 acres with $30 million in private monies gifted by TWC and TWC’s Wildlands Endowment Fund (WEF), and $15 million in Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) monies. In 2002-2003, TWC and WEF funded the acquisition of an additional 155,583 acres of Catellus land. In 2004, TWC funded the remaining 7,103 acres of Catellus lands. TWC purchased and donated an additional 20,000 acres of Catellus lands located throughout the desert to the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management.

At more than 587,000 acres, The Wildlands Conservancy’s Catellus acquisition is the largest nonprofit land acquisition donated to the American people in U.S. history. It included funding the acquisition of over 85,000 acres in Mohave National Preserve, over 20,000 acres in Joshua Tree National Park, over 210,000 acres in 20 Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas, and hundreds of thousands of acres of important habitat. This acquisition represents the largest landscape connectivity and wildlife corridor completed with nonprofit funds in North America.

Thanks to the support of our donors, this vast reach of the Mojave Desert will always be open to hikers, campers and sightseers, and will remain a place of beauty, solitude and inspiration for all time to come.


18 posted on 03/20/2009 7:56:28 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: NormsRevenge

19 posted on 03/20/2009 7:56:39 PM PDT by Islander7 (If you want to anger conservatives, lie to them. If you want to anger liberals, tell them the truth.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Don't you just love to watch these dems? They want to get rid of coal and oil and nuclear and have us switch to wind and solar. They make all the places with oil of limits.

Then they make the sunny and windy places off limits. So, we all get to rely on sunlight to light and warm our houses. Meanwhile, they are probably planning to tax us for that energy and treat it as income. Just like they are going after people who are collecting rainwater.

20 posted on 03/20/2009 7:58:09 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault
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