Trump administration takes aim at California desert protection plan

Tribune via MSN ^ | 01 Feb 2018 | Evan Halper, Tribune Washington Bureau

[blueplum]

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is threatening to scrap a major Obama-era agreement that sought to protect millions of acres of the California desert by placing sensitive areas off-limits to major solar- and wind-energy installations.

The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan covers more than 10.8 million acres and was designed to guide energy facilities to parcels where they are least likely to cause environmental damage.

{snip}...The Bureau of Land Management says it was moved to consider changing the plan "in response to President Trump's order to review regulations that unnecessarily impede energy development." It points out that under the conservation plan, only 7 percent of the millions of acres it covers is available for renewable energy leasing.

[blueplum]

When is a management plan not a management plan? When it only opens 7percent of its managed area for energy leasing in the name of 'conservation'.

[DoughtyOne]

I only ask that these plants are viable, once they do create them.

Don’t go screwing up massive tracts of land, only to find out the results just don’t pan out.

So many of these pie in the sky projects seem to be someone’s wonderful idea that burns more money and energy than they produce.

[blueplum]

I agree on the energy part. Grazing and recreational use has also been restricted along with energy development. So more than one thing to look at for sure in Calif’s so-called ‘management’ plan.

[DoughtyOne]

I think off-roaders should have places to enjoy that sort of thing. I’m not convinced they should have access to massive tracts of land for it.

That sort of thing is very destructive to natural resources. Open up areas where they can pursue that sort of thing, and ask them to respect other pristine places.

As for grazing, as long as it isn’t destructive, I’m okay with free range grazing.

It seems that people of good will coming together should be able to come to agreements that sees most people’s interests addressed reasonably.

[4rcane]

protect desert from solar/wind installation??!?!?! They’re the best place for them.

[Mastador1]

You know I hate the Federal government stealing land from the states by making monuments, but what I hate much more is the land use being denied to the public while it is covered with massive, destructive solar and wind farms that do more harm than good.

[Wuli]

Kill the BLM and return to the states 100% of all the “federal” lands it has management over. Demand all other federal departments sell off all land that is under their control but does not serve any operational purpose at this time. Put the proceeds of those sales into an endowment held for the future purchase of land for federal purposes.

The energy department should be only a coordinator of energy infrastructure projects when such projects or their operational results will involve multiple states. The primary approvals should all be consensus decisions by the states involved, with input from the federal coordinator.

How’s your grocery shopping doing? Is there enough variety and are there major shortages of supply? Whose the “federal coordinator” or decision maker over the thousands of operations to put that all together? No one is, you can admit. So why should the energy industries need a federal overseer?