Mojave Desert Blog

Hiding the slaughter The USFWS is not the USFWS w...

2012-05-28T09:44:19.613-07:00

Hiding the slaughter

The USFWS is not the USFWS we think it is. While most of the lower level employees are very dedicated in their service towards wildlife, it is the upper brass that need to be exposed. These puppets are deliberately steering their boat for an insane wind energy plan that has no chance of ever solving Americas energy needs. All this is not for America's energy needs and never has been. It a just another way to market energy and to satisfy the greed of stakeholders.

For 28 years the USFWS has been sitting on their hands watching the wind industry survive with their lies about bird mortality and bogus studies. If you do not believe any of this, than the fact that this industry still only has USFWS approved "Voluntary guidelines" should convince anyone. These Voluntary guidelines are there for only one purpose, so the industry can hide their slaughter of eagles and protected birds.

In addition this agency's policy of allowing public comments for environmental impact issues is a mockery because everything has already been decided behind closed doors. In other words, this government agency is corrupt. Communities across America need to understand this process if they want to save their eagles because there will be no help from this agency.

There will also be no help from wildlife groups because their leaders are also steering their boats, with their millions of members, away from any solutions. If you do not want to believe it, just take a look on all their web sites and read what they have to say about wind energy. I think group members should then ask or demand from group directors, an accounting of wind industry related donations, Mitigation Money from Wind projects, and settlements from meaningless lawsuits.

You take lovely pictures.

2012-05-23T13:39:36.058-07:00

You take lovely pictures.

What can we do to stop this? This is sickening.

2012-05-21T15:24:56.649-07:00

What can we do to stop this? This is sickening.

I hear you...Rt 66 in NM is just 100 yards N of me...

2012-05-18T12:47:57.368-07:00

I hear you...Rt 66 in NM is just 100 yards N of me house. Abq is lucky to have some preserved open space and wilderness right nearby, including many of that same Baileya multiradiata wildflower. Especially lucky, since the same city has destroyed much of that flora and never tried to restore it. Preservation of such places is better than nothing at all.

Excellent post! Sharing under "wind vs coal n...

2012-05-15T10:35:09.861-07:00

Excellent post! Sharing under "wind vs coal not the answer" Thank you, thank you for bring some wisdom into this discussion.

Great post Shaun! It seems that in the last two y...

2012-05-15T08:42:39.344-07:00

Great post Shaun!

It seems that in the last two years the choices are always would you prefer a wind turbine or a stirling engine etc to be "planted" out on your favorite unspoiled desert view, with nobody in power(government, big enviro groups,etc)listening when you say, you know I would prefer my rooftop to be covered with pv solar panels.

Even the Australian Beyond Zero Emissions national blueprint to go 100% renewables in 20 years, downplayed rooftop solar, in favor of big solar and big wind out in the boondocks.

It is almost like, if it ain't big, we ain't listening. If it is on rooftops, we ain't listening.

The most obvious choice usually is the right choice, but try telling that to folks today, who are busily tweeting away about good wind and how they are going to wipe out bad coal!

A note to all those tweeters- did you see where the Obama administration just put "CLEAN COAL"
back up on their energy website?

So you see, you didn't change anything, it is still the same old, same old and while the bulldozers are warming up their engines to blade away more pristine wilderness, millions of rooftops are just sitting there soaking up the southern California sun, not helping at all to stop climate change, the most obvious choice passed over again.

Hi, 1st time visitor to your blog. Liked your pie...

2012-05-14T19:30:18.451-07:00

Hi, 1st time visitor to your blog. Liked your piece on my oldest brother aka MorongoBill. I live in Arkansas and occasionally he surprizes even me. Can't wait to fly out again and go to a casino with him. He's one lucky s.o.b for sure.

Thank you for clear writing & thinking, Sean. ...

2012-04-27T10:13:56.951-07:00

Thank you for clear writing & thinking, Sean. Time to make common cause with the Southern Paiute, Paiute, Chemehueve, and other First Nations in the desert to which we all share a sacred connection. The racists at the Imperial Valley Press may pound sand.

Excellent post, Shaun. I too read the comments, t...

2012-04-27T01:51:36.368-07:00

Excellent post, Shaun.

I too read the comments, the racist and neanderthal- like ramblings, you referred to.

One thing I can guarantee though. Those folks and the ones who run things understand the power of money.

And this time, the industrialists may just have crossed a line in the sand. First they bulldozed the intaglios out by Blythe, ignoring the rightful objections by the tribes affected by the desecration, and now they are bulldozing burial sites, and offering up the flimsiest of excuses, legalistic mumbo jumbo, like it is all hearsay.

Since none of us were alive then, I guess you could say the Buddha or the Prophet or the Christ, they are all "hearsay!"

Mark my words, I believe this is really the final insult, the final indignity that these
Sovereign Nations will take, and this time the gloves will come off. I believe that right now
talks are taking place between the richer tribes and the ones along the Colorado, or are about to, because if this isn't stopped right now, it never will.

Lawyers and legal briefs and court filings cost money, lots of it. The rich tribes have it, lots of it. They know that their lands may be next. Their culture, unlike most Americans today, honors the past and their ancestors, and that is a sacred trust to them, that they will honor.

And there is a powerful federal law on the books, just waiting to be used against these folks, which just might stop the whole process in its tracks.

Finally after all the destruction that has occurred and is still going on, the arrogance and hubris, those old and ancient human traits, fully in evidence on the industrialist's side, may finally be the levers that can and should be used to bring them down, to "mow them down to size" as it were.

You captured that mood well...I only have mid-day ...

2012-04-26T00:10:56.034-07:00

You captured that mood well...I only have mid-day shots of creosotes agaionst the sky from just outside town.

OMG this makes me so angry and sad! How can this b...

2012-04-10T00:08:28.397-07:00

OMG this makes me so angry and sad! How can this be allowed??
"The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the northeast Mojave Desert has already displaced or killed over 130 desert tortoises, creating much publicized delays in construction. "

You are the man, Shaun. For the best up to date i...

2012-04-09T20:38:54.118-07:00

You are the man, Shaun.

For the best up to date information on the Mojave Desert, especially renewable energy news, I come to your site.

Excellent information and commentary!

I does not help matters that several (with more jo...

2012-03-26T06:18:54.036-07:00

I does not help matters that several (with more joining the camp) ecologists are now on board with 'ecosystems services', where such trade offs are partnering with monetizing and capitalizing nature. It is more commonplace now to have industry members on the boards of our once-revered environmental organizations. So we have a growing infiltration of capitalizing nature and its ecosystems, and pressure to incorporate ecosystems into the global economics games. And these industries are now an attractive source of funding for environmental organizations, creating conflicting interests and goals.

Perhaps members, and even non-members, should start reminding these organizations of their founding ethics and goals. Which is what I did when receiving my annual re-subscription. Instead of a check, the return envelope was stuffed with a letter chastising their recent behavior along with copies of several articles commenting on their involvement in issues as you describe above. In also included a copy of one of Dr. Sian Sullivan's papers (Univ. College of London) that critically dissects the capitalization of global ecosystems and the role of many environmental organizations.

If I had too choose between solar or wind in the d...

2012-03-24T09:14:11.044-07:00

If I had too choose between solar or wind in the desert my choice would be wind. Solar belongs in dry lake beds, parking lots, and roof tops. To see a solar plant in the wilderness is like seeing complete distruction of the area. I would rather see a sub or a golf cource, both would be better for the wild.
PS that vid made me sick, I would have rather seen them pushed up with a bulldozer. At the least the could be salvaged. Sad!

Kind of like the B.S.'ers tortoise mitigation ...

2012-03-08T19:02:23.801-08:00

Kind of like the B.S.'ers tortoise mitigation for Ivanpah SEGS,land at so high an altitude that tortoise's don't even live there.

But of course with climate change, they can move up there.

This whole process has a certain marsupial aroma about it.

Thank you for posting this. I'll be making con...

2012-02-26T21:23:41.883-08:00

Thank you for posting this. I'll be making contact with the places you gave me phone numbers for. -DVJ

Very pretty! We need to get up that way soon.

2012-02-22T05:19:49.642-08:00

Very pretty! We need to get up that way soon.

Thank you for this beautifully written virtual wal...

2012-02-17T19:14:39.413-08:00

Thank you for this beautifully written virtual walk through of our energy conundrum. I'm in the "small is beautiful unplug and save camp" and hooray for Energy Democracy!

Sorry for the delayed response, Jessica. You can ...

2012-02-16T19:29:53.753-08:00

Sorry for the delayed response, Jessica. You can find the excel sheets published by BLM for the California Desert District renewable energy applications at the links below. They include approved solar and wind projects, proposed projects, and wind testing projects, where wind companies identify large plots of land where they are interested in potentially building facilities.

http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/pa/energy/solar.Par.57734.File.dat/BLM%20Solar%20Apps%20&%20Auths.xlsx

http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/pa/energy.Par.66663.File.dat/BLM%20wind%20apps%20&%20auths.xlsx

I'd like to include the information that over ...

2012-02-10T11:12:38.841-08:00

I'd like to include the information that over 1000 miles of California public lands are slated for renewable energy development and would like to know specifically what percentage of that is solar. Do you have a specific source or sources that state this information succinctly? Thank you!

This is a well reasoned and researched article whi...

2012-02-09T10:30:44.728-08:00

This is a well reasoned and researched article which guts the Wilderness Society's position.

I have long wondered if these plants were to be placed in the middle of forests, what would the position of the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, NRDC, Defenders of Wildlife, et al- would they have sued to stop them from being built?

You betcha.

Would they have been involved from the very beginning to try to set the rules in such a way as to minimize impacts on the forests, if not avoid them altogether?

You betcha.

Instead as time as shown, they did all they could- to make sure these boondoggles were dumped in the "inhospitable deserts."

I guess wilderness to them is defined by having lots of trees.

Amen MDB! Thank you for your truth telling. And ...

2012-02-08T21:53:52.271-08:00

Amen MDB! Thank you for your truth telling. And one should not forget the estimated 3,000 endangered desert tortoises that will be dislocated or outright killed (or both) to make way for BrightSource. That's a single industrial solar project. Imagine the cumulative impact of multiple, massive solar power-plants on our southwestern ecosystems?

Is this the same First Solar that is headquartered...

2012-02-07T13:25:28.216-08:00

Is this the same First Solar that is headquartered here in Toledo, Ohio? If so, and I assume it is, please let me know, as we would like to network with you and start having actions here to raise local awareness and pressure First Solar to stop destroying dessert habitat. Folks here know nothing of the true nature of the dessert, thinking of it as barren sand. We can use the tortoise as a symbol and get local media attention on this. We also have several friends who are low-level workers for First Solar.

Rick VanLandingham
shootingsurvivor@yahoo.com

Thanks

2012-02-04T17:56:24.019-08:00

Thanks

2012-02-04T17:47:49.560-08:00

Thanks