Who Should Lead Our Renewable Energy Policy?
The Department of Interior plans to make millions of acres of mostly pristine desert land in America's southwest available to energy companies as part of its solar energy development proposal. Much of this energy development will take place in California's deserts, and threatens to drive rare plants and wildlife to extinction. The light is shining so brightly on Interior's misguided proposal that we have forgotten a promising effort by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build renewable energy on already-disturbed land instead of our treasured open space. There is a need for the Department of Interior to reform its renewable energy siting process, which prompted it to draft its solar energy development proposal, and there is certainly a need to increase America's generation of clean energy. But where we generate this energy is just as important as why we need to -- preservation of our natural resources. So why does Washington's premier policy pro