Posted on 10/14/2025 6:05:27 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The cancellation of a massive solar project is a sad commentary on America’s energy development.
Anyone who has visited Nevada knows the Silver State has an abundance of another natural resource: sunlight. Naturally, lawmakers there have been determined to make the most of it. The desert state generates about a third of its electricity from solar panels, the highest in the country on a per capita basis. Since 2019, leaders from both parties have supported plans to draw more than half its energy from renewable sources, especially solar.
Increasingly, however, those lofty ambitions seem unlikely to succeed for the same reasons that energy projects across the country just can’t seem to make much headway: The country is consumed by a culture of “no.”
Last week, the Interior Department quietly announced the cancellation of the state’s Esmeralda 7 project, which would become one of the largest solar power farms in the world if completed. The plan consists of 62,300 acres for panels and batteries, all on federally-owned land in a remote desert northwest of Las Vegas. Developers estimate the project could produce up to 6.2 gigawatts of energy, enough to power almost 2 million homes.
The reason for the cancellation remains unclear, but it fits with the Trump administration’s strategy of suffocating renewable energy with bureaucracy. The gigantic development is a consortium of seven separate projects, whose developers decided to band together for the arduous permitting process, as opposed to enduring it separately. Now, the Interior Department says that the developers must each start the process over individually if they want to proceed, which would include redoing environmental reviews that were already completed.
Even if the developers decide to slog ahead, they are destined to endure a long, frustrating journey that will raise their...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It’s both sad and laughable when these ‘journalists’ attempt to write about anything concerning science - you know, the subject they actively avoided in ‘skool’ and ‘kollege’.
On the contrary, it's GREAT progress.
These solar farms I see all over the place are the worse eyesores I've seen in a long time.
They are U.G.L.Y. and ruin the landscape.
“suffocating renewable energy with bureaucracy. “
That is not journalism, it is opinion. But when was the WA Compost dedicated to facts? Never let the truth get in the way of the agenda.
Migratory birds are pro-Trump.
If solar power is so great, why does it need government permission, and especially money, every step of the way?
If the world really is heating up... Why heat it up even more with massive solar mirror farms intensifying heat from the sun? Can you D-Oh!
Stupid assed WaPo. Trump is only making the industry stand on its own.
It's viable or it's not. The way it should be.
And destroy good farmland forever.
Yes, they are ugly, disgusting.
The birds can’t stand them and cover them with their special, corrosive guano.
I LIVE IN N NEVADA.
MY POWER BILLS RUN ABOUT $90 A MONTH
More here:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4346342/posts
We have enough eyesore here as it is.
Whatever did mankind do for light before there was solar and wind. Must have been a scrape-to-live lifestyle.
“Solar boom” get the F otta here
Not to mention that a “massive solar project” of this scale would seriously jeopardize the stability of the grid serving Las Vegas and points west, increasing the potential for unscheduled blackouts. With 62,000 acres of solar panels their problems would be just beginning.
“The country is consumed by a culture of “no.””
I hadn’t looked at the source of the article, but once they BLAMED THE VOTERS, it was clear that this had to be the Mainstream Media.
Exactly!
These are panels. They still look like crap, and 97 square miles of them would be a lot of crap...
Democrats have shut down multiple projects by using the bureaucracy of 'environmental impact studies'.
Person can be fined and arrested for harvesting rain water off a roof but 60,000 acres for solar panels, no problem.
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