Government Favors Destructive Layout of Solar Facility Near National Park
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) reviewed three different alternatives for the proposed Desert Sunlight Solar power project, and expressed support for a 6.8 square mile layout that includes an area with a dense desert tortoise population. The Desert Sunlight solar project would be built by First Solar and Desert Sunlight Holdings LLC on public land less than two miles from Joshua Tree National Park. The project is still in the initial stages of review, and you can read the draft environmental impact statement and offer comments on the BLM website. Among the three different alternatives, layout "C" would have the least impact on desert tortoises and other sensitive plant and wildlife, but the BLM and CPUC expressed support for layout "B," which contains at least 22 active desert tortoise burrows. Surveys of the smaller layout "C" only found 7 active burrows. The draft Environmental Impact Statement