Ridgecrest Solar Power Project Cancelled
Update: Solar Millennium LLC has since revived its proposal to destroy 6 square miles of public land, as of 24 March 2011. Ending a stubborn and costly effort to destroy public lands in the name of profit, Solar Millennium finally canceled its proposal to build the Ridgecrest Solar power project in the Western Mojave Desert. The company planned to bulldoze over 6 square miles of desert, but the California Energy Commission (CEC) staff warned the company about its intention not to approve the project. The site is located on a Mohave Ground Squirrel connectivity corridor that links different populations of the animal, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service may list under the Endangered Species Act. The site also hosts at least 40 endangered desert tortoises , and local residents expressed concerns about the project's overdraft of scarce groundwater resources. The CEC's review of the Ridgecrest Solar power project was put on hold in July 2010 after the CEC initially exp