Defenders of Wildlife Blog

DESERT TORTOISE, (C) Jeff Aardahl/Defenders of Wildlife

NEWS: Conservation groups urge Interior Department to move the Calico Solar Project to less sensitive lands

A coalition of conservation groups made a last-ditch appeal to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today, urging the Bureau of Land Management to move the Calico Solar Project from vital desert habitat to degraded lands that could produce the same amount of energy, but pose less risk to imperiled wildlife and the environment.

Kim Delfino, Defenders' California program director.

“The conservation community wants to see clean energy projects succeed, but development has to be done smart from the start, where projects are designed up front to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts on wildlife and the environment. The Calico Solar Project is a glaring example of the wrong way to pursue solar energy projects,” said Kim Delfino, California Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife.

“The harm to imperiled wildlife, plants and fragile desert habitat caused by this project if it is built in this location seriously outweighs any benefits. And while we’ve worked successfully with a number of large-scale solar project developers to reduce their project’s impacts on the environment and supported other projects with no changes, the impacts of this project are too great in its present location. As we have done successfully with other solar developers, we hope we can find a way to modify this project to reduce its impacts and permit it to proceed.”

Related: Read Defenders’ fact sheet explaining why Calico is an example of solar development done wrong.

The groups have notified the Interior Department of their intention to file a lawsuit against BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approving the 4,613-acre solar power facility, which will impact seven imperiled species in the fragile Mojave Desert landscape, including desert tortoise, burrowing owls and bighorn sheep.

The Calico Solar Project is a glaring example of the wrong way to pursue solar energy projects. – Kim Delfino

But the groups hope to work out an agreement with the project’s developer, K-Road Power, and BLM outside the courts if the developer is willing to move the project to less sensitive lands. The groups have pointed out that the project could work well on mostly private lands — including some degraded agricultural lands and former industrial sites, called brownfields, that are close to the current site, but outside of the sensitive Pisgah Valley.

The Calico project will use solar dishes like thisone and solar panels to capture sunlight and create electricity. (C) NERL

The California Energy Commission found that these alternative sites would be a good option for the project and would likely result in fewer impacts on wildlife and the environment. But BLM and the project developer at the time, Tessera Solar, rejected these locations.

Together, Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club have worked out agreements with developers to resolve concerns over four projects on public lands, resulting in the permitting of some 2,595 megawatts — nearly 90 percent of the solar energy to be built on BLM lands in California. Despite the groups’ strong track record of working with developers to reduce impacts on wildlife and natural resources, K-Road Power has been unwilling to consider a less environmentally damaging alternative.

“The area where the Calico project is currently planned is simply not appropriate for renewable energy development,” said Barb Boyle, Senior Representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.  “If built in this location, the Calico project will unnecessarily sacrifice important and irreplaceable wildlife, plants and habitat.  Especially when there are ample disturbed and/or degraded sites throughout California that are appropriate for renewable energy development, selecting this specific land for the project has created a preventable conflict between the project’s developers and Californians who want to preserve our state’s native wildlife and landscapes.  There is still time to get this right and we hope to work with K-Road Power to find an alternative location that has far fewer impacts on wildlife and desert ecosystems.”

Related: Read our letter to Interior Secretary Salazar.

NEWS: Conservation groups from around the country today supported key aspects of the Bureau of Land Management’s draft plan for developing solar power on America’s western public lands.

However, they add that a Modified Solar Zone Alternative is needed to build in important improvements that ensure protections for wildlife, water and other resources so that the final plan is truly Smart from the Start.

“We’re pleased to see the BLM endorse a ‘zone-based’ approach that would guide solar projects to the right places to start – areas with the highest renewable-energy potential as well as the fewest wildlife and other conflicts,” said Pam Eaton, TWS’s deputy vice president for public lands. “Together with improved energy efficiency and small-scale solar projects, an enhanced zone approach will allow our public lands to play an important role in America’s transition to a clean, renewable energy future.”

Related: Learn more about solar energy’s impacts on wildlife with Kim Delfino.

“If they’re smart about this, we’ll have more power from renewable energy and get it to consumers sooner and at a lower cost, while creating thousands of new jobs, and providing a cleaner, healthier future for our children,” said Johanna Wald, a senior attorney at NRDC.  “While the BLM’s proposal provides a good starting point, it won’t achieve these goals without important improvements.”

A Tale of Two Plans

The BLM’s preferred alternative is one of two being examined in a draft Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. One, the Solar Energy Zones Alternative, would guide solar power projects to 24 specific zones covering nearly 677,000 acres in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The other, which is the agency’s Preferred Alternative, goes much farther by opening up an additional 21 million acres outside those zones that have yet to be studied for potential resource conflicts. Conservation groups disagreed with the choice of the Preferred Alternative, and argued neither alternative offered the certainty that the groups, solar developers, and the agency itself needs to move forward on a smart path.

It’s possible to better minimize and mitigate project impacts so wildlife is no worse off as a result. This draft doesn’t do that yet and must be improved…

Jim Lyons, senior director for renewable energy

According to Jim Lyons, senior director for renewable energy with Defenders of Wildlife, the Department of the Interior has committed to building a clean, renewable energy future Smart from the Start.

He adds that while the BLM’s draft plan for solar energy on public lands shows some promise, it’s possible to better minimize and mitigate project impacts so wildlife is no worse off as a result; and he says this draft doesn’t do that yet and must be improved to ensure protections for wildlife and water, including a clear commitment to mitigate unavoidable damage.

“Solar energy is key to a real clean energy future. That’s why the conservation community has been working tirelessly over the last several months on recommendations to help the BLM design a plan that will be flexible enough to help developers build projects, while at the same time reduce chances for conflicts with wildlife and speed up permitting,” said Lyons.

Conservation Groups Offer a Smart Approach

The groups pointed out that several of the 24 proposed zones would have a significant adverse impact on the local environment and recommended that those zones be dropped in favor of a process to designate other sites that are equally well suited to solar development with significantly less impact on publicly owned natural resources.

Solar energy is key to a real clean energy future. That’s why the conservation community has been working tirelessly over the last several months on recommendations to help the BLM…

A 114-day public comment period on the draft plan, which included 13 listening sessions around the western United States, ended today. In addition to presentations made at those sessions, more than 65,000 comments were submitted recommending that the BLM adopt a modified Solar Energy Zones Alternative. A modified alternative would:

• Allow solar development only inside designated zones;
• Drop the proposed Pisgah and Iron Mountain zones in California and Bullard Wash in Arizona, but considers additional solar zones in California’s West Mojave and in Arizona instead;
• Establish specific criteria and a timeline for creating other new solar energy zones;
• Allow BLM to comply with current wildlife law and policy and mandate sufficient mitigation for unavoidable impacts from solar development; and
• Create a process for clearing out the backlog of applications that are speculative or are in high-conflict areas so that the agency can concentrate on pending applications and encourage less controversial projects to relocate inside the zones—those most likely to be successfully permitted.

“Over the past two years, we’ve worked closely with solar developers and agency officials on individual projects, providing recommendations for improving those projects and identifying appropriate development areas,” said Helen O’Shea, deputy director of NRDC’s Western Renewable Energy Project. “But that project-by-project approach is no way to rapidly and cost-efficiently develop the renewable energy we need. We need a better, smarter way forward, and we’re hoping that the BLM takes this opportunity to put a truly smart plan in place.”

A true Smart from the Start program would consider contributions from energy efficiency as well as from all renewable energy sources — wind, solar and geothermal, whether large-scale or small.

The Modified Solar Energy Zones Alternative is an important stepping-stone to a national Smart from the Start renewable energy program. A true Smart from the Start program would consider contributions from energy efficiency as well as from all renewable energy sources — wind, solar and geothermal, whether large-scale or small. It would also set clear guidelines and criteria for how, when and where those projects will be sited. That includes putting projects on private lands as well as public lands, steering them to already degraded lands such as abandoned farms and mines, or former military installations, placing them near existing power lines, and ensuring that they will pose minimal threats to wildlife, water supplies and other resources.

Read our detailed comments to the BLM.

Matt Clark, Defenders Southwest Representative

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Arizonans are invited to help make the call on whether solar energy development is “in the zone.” The U.S. Department of Interior is holding meetings starting Tuesday in Phoenix and on Wednesday in Tucson to listen to citizens’ views on plans for solar projects on public lands.

Matt Clark with Defenders of Wildlife in Arizona says the biggest reason for Arizonans to participate is that these lands belong to them and future generations.

“It’s vital that the public participate in this public process, which affects millions of acres of their public lands. We need to plan solar energy development smart from the start, in order to avoid the loss of important wildlife habitat, hunting areas, cultural sites and water resources.”

The plans on the table will set guidelines for “where, what, when and how big” for solar projects on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. Clark says the ideal solar zones are areas where conflicts with recreation, wildlife and the environment are expected to be minimal. Ideal zones would also be sited near transmission grids.

The biggest reason for Arizonans to participate is that these lands belong to them and future generations. — Matt Clark

Alex Daue, renewable energy coordinator with The Wilderness Society, says large-scale solar projects are needed quickly to meet energy demands. But he says getting zones in place first is a good proposal from the BLM.

“They’ve identified a number of places across the state that have great solar resources and limited conflicts. By guiding projects to these zones, we can ensure that solar development on public lands is faster, cheaper and better.”

Complete meeting schedules for the Solar Energy Development Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft Solar PEIS) are available at online.

View this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories.

– Doug Ramsey, Public News Service – AZ

Solar projects must be carefully designed to avoid desert bighorn sheep habitat.

Defenders’ California program director, Kim Delfino, co-authored a guest editorial in the  San Diego Union-Tribune last Friday that outlines some of the flaws in the Bureau of Land Management’s draft plan for guiding solar energy development.

While most of us have an understanding of how polluting fuels such as coal and oil harm the planet, the dark side of solar energy to some may still be a little murky. I caught up with Delfino so that she could help shine some light on the topic.

Q: Why must we be careful in planning solar power projects?

KD: We need to put solar power projects in the right places in the desert because these enormous facilities can be as big as several hundred football stadiums. When you build one of them out in nature, you can inflict a lot of harm to the animal communities that live there, such as our iconic desert tortoise and bighorn sheep.  Who would want to see solar energy — which is a good thing because we don’t have to pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink to generate electricity from sunshine — become a bad thing because we’ve trashed nature and wildlife habitats to get it?

Kim Delfino, Defenders' California program director

Q: What could happen if we’re not careful?

KD: When you break ground in the desert, it’s done as habitat for wildlife. The land has to be to be plowed almost completely flat for a solar power plant. That means much of the plant life gets wiped out, leaving no food or shelter for the other animals that live there. Tortoises, which live in underground borrows, can be buried alive or crushed underground. And solar power plants need water to clean dust off panels or mirrors, to make steam for generators, and for people working at the facilities to use. If this water is pumped from scarce desert streams, flows and watering holes, then thirsty animals will be left high and dry.

Q: Does this mean we can’t have solar energy in the desert?

KD: There are countless places in the desert for responsible solar energy development. In fact, there are many lands that already been damaged by other kinds of development, such as mining and farming, that can no longer support wildlife. But they could be “recycled” into solar power plants. For a lot of reasons, it’s better to put a project in these places, like abandoned alfalfa farms, because they’re closer to cities, roads and power lines – and not out in the middle of nowhere. Putting projects in such places will speed up our transition to clean, renewable energy and keep wildlife out of harm’s way.

What Is Defenders Doing?

Living in underground burrows, desert tortoise can fall victim to poorly sited solar power plants.

Defenders is working with policymakers in the U.S.  Department of the Interior and Congress, project developers and investors and other conservation partners to promote better long-term policies for renewable energy development and to improve pending energy generation and transmission projects.

On the ground, Defenders is:

• Walking proposed project sites, analyzing their potential impacts on wildlife and providing comments to state and federal regulatory agencies
• Working with renewable energy developers to choose locations for facilities that keep wildlife out of harm’s way, such as areas that have already been degraded

Learn more about renewable energy and wildlife.

Take Action

The federal government is hosting a series of public meetings throughout the region to discuss its draft plan on where to site large-scale solar power plants on public lands. Check out listings to find events in your area.

A typical day at Stockholm's Central Station.

A Swedish company has found a new use for some of Stockholm’s hottest bods — that is, heating big buildings, of course!

The hustle and bustle of a quarter-million passengers through this European city’s rail hub, Central Station, generates a lot of juice – enough electricity to lower energy costs at a nearby 13-story building by up to 25 percent, according to a BBC News report.

Who’d have guessed that body heat could be such a potent source of renewable (dare I say clean) energy? Apparently, the idea’s been around for a while. According to Time, the Mall of America in Minnesota also captures body heat to help keep shoppers toasty warm in winter.

But this story offers a fresh reminder that smart, renewable energy possibilities are all around us… from solar panels covering parking lots to that bloke brushing by on your morning commute.

The more creative solutions we use, such as capturing body heat, the less pressure energy development will place on wildlife like threatened desert tortoises and their habitat on public lands.

Learn more about large-scale solar energy development’s impacts on wildlife and public lands.

Members Project

We found this great story through our Members Project partners, TakePart.

The American Express Members Project has selected Defenders as a a candidate to receive $200,000 in funding, but only if we get the most votes.

Help us win the contest. Two hundred grand will go a long way to help save our wildlife and wild places. And all YOU need to do is vote!

(c) U.S. Department of Energy

Defenders in the New York Times!

Defenders president Rodger Schlickeisen published this letter on our nation’s clean energy future in the New York Times on Sunday! 

To the Editor:

You correctly note in your Oct. 28 editorial “Remember Renewable Energy?” that the process of approving renewable energy development must move faster. But adverse effects of industrial-scale solar and wind projects on water, wildlife and fragile ecosystems should not be ignored in the rush to approval.

“Clean, renewable energy located to minimize adverse effects is in everyone’s best interest.” — Rodger Schlickeisen, President and CEO

Renewable energy development affects desert tortoises in California

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has promised to harness the lessons learned from the first generation of renewable energy projects to improve the process — particularly to site projects to minimize their effects on wildlife and the environment and to mitigate effects that cannot be avoided. In the long run, this “smart from the start” planning of renewable energy projects will result in better projects and faster approvals.

The Obama administration is making a historic shift to powering our nation with clean, renewable energy. To do this right, we need to design environmentally sound projects that get permitted faster, give developers greater certainty and come at a lower cost.

Clean, renewable energy located to minimize adverse effects is in everyone’s best interest.

Rodger Schlickeisen
President and Chief Executive
Defenders of Wildlife
Washington, Oct. 28, 2010

What is Defenders doing on renewable energy?

Defenders is working to promote wildlife-friendly renewable energy development that is “smart from the start.” That means putting solar, wind and geothermal projects in the right places and designing them in the right ways to protect wildlife, wildlands, water and other important natural resources.

Learn more about Defenders’ work on renewable energy.