10/19/2010 Jan Boudart
Comments:
Thank you for the beautiful website. If we count the 100 mile commute, the cost (to someone) of manufacturing the solar panels (who has to put up with the environmental problems at the manufacture site?) and the loss of habitat for beautiful animals and plants, the solar power plant is very expensive. Has anyone done a cost analysis of the whole thing. It appears that it won't pay even if you don't count the loss of habitat.
10/18/2010 Henry Peters
Comments:
Thanks for your works!
10/18/2010 Sandy LeonVest
Comments:
Thanks for all the hard work and great research over there at B&R Watch. SolarTimes is right on the same page with you, with respect to massive, wholly corporate-owned solar or wind projects. We'd welcome article contributions from you. SolarTimes is an independent energy newspaper with a progressive point of view, distributed throughout the SF Bay Area, the North Bay and beyond. We're also online at www.solartimes.org. I'd love to hear from you ... All best, Sandy LeonVest Editor/Publisher SolarTimes...
10/8/2010 Drew
Comments:
Great web-page. Does anyone know the correct pronunciation of "Ivanpah?"
Basin and Range Watch Editors Respond: Our Chemehuevi friend pronounces it "Ivan-pah" just like it looks, the first part like the proper name Ivan. It means "clean water" referring to springs used by the tribes. A village was located in southern Ivanpah Valley.
New Information: At the Ivanpah Run on October 16, 2010, we learned that Ivanpah comes from a Chemehuevi word pronounced aa-VEEM-pah, with the middle syllable emphasized. It means "White clay water" specifically.
9/23/2010 Caroline Webb
Comments:
What perplexes me at the moment is how much effort went into locating sites for large solar that do not involve disturbing pristine nature. Is it all about the price of land and the sites chosen are cheaper than sites closer to cities and already changed from their original character? Am very concerned about the 'wisdom' of destroying yet more of the planet's beauty. Just because these are renewable energies does not give them a mandate to trample over the rights of other species, local people, archeological heritage and water availability etc.
9/18/2010 Erin Brickner
Comments:
These are really important ecosystems. The deserts are teaming with life and to dismiss them is very ignorant. I grew up in the Arizona desert and the growth that was allowed there is obscene. Now there are too many houses and not enough urban dwellers. And where have all the poor animals of the Sonoran desert gone? I moved away because it was so depressing. I vowed never to live in a brand new house my whole life. I like to support the natives as much as possible. I grow things just for the bees and native oaks follow me wherever I go. I hope we can stop this habitat destruction and start caring for our deserts and wild landscapes.
9/2/2010 Andy
Comments:
Typical liberals. We want renewable energy but not in our backyard. Just wait until man made global warming takes it toll, then we might think about it.
8/27/2010 Steve Cyr
Comments:
I would like to help out if possible.... Thanks for being there. Steve.
8/18/2010 AC
Comments:
maybe you should close the high ways tooo....
8/9/2010 Ernie
Comments:
Out of the 1000's of achers out there, using a small area for power wont hurt. Providing jobs to people who live in the desert will help. I just was at Ivanpah this weekend, and seeing the mass of area available leads me to believe that the website "save ivanpah" is going a bit overboard by saying this project will ruin the valley.
8/8/2010 Kim Means
Comments:
Thank you for this informative site. I am a citizen of Searchlight who opposes this project, and the attention you pay to our issue is heartening. Thanks.
8/1/2010 Chris W. Miller
Comments:
This article was just in the Mesquite Local News and they said: The mayor spoke on the Toquop Energy project, which should be gearing up next year to build the $1.4 billion solar facility and could bring as many as 900 new jobs to the Mesquite area. Just wondered if the jobs and project are real? http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=5943&id=2 Thanks, Chris
7/24/2010 Rob Mrowka
Comments:
Keep up the tremendous work...!
6/28/2010 Shaun
Comments:
Thank you for the Ivanpah updates. Basin and Range Watch is clearly plugged into the mechanics of some of these solar developments, and your update on BrightSource testing the poles for the heliostat is a testament to the close watch Basin and Range is applying to this issue!
6/6/2010 Michael
Comments:
You people are despicable. Do you even think about the alternatives for getting your energy? How are fossil fuels working out for you?
6/3/2010 Loulena
Comments:
Your photos say it all in a way that words never could! The Palen photos just blew me away.
5/16/2010 Kathie
Comments:
From Marfa, TX - the next desert site with fossil water earmarked for Tessera project.
Basin and Range Watch Editors respond: See a brief mention of SES/Tessera's West Texas solar proposal, a 27-MW project with CPS Energy, in Renewable Energy World.com.
5/14/2010 Dennis Morrison-Lucerne
Comments:
Granite Mountain is a pristine virtually untouched mountain that lies between Lucerne and Apple Valleys. It will soon have 400ft wind generators and a 40ft wide road blasted into it's ridge. The cost in wildlife habitat alone is immense. I stand alongside all of you in defense of our deserts against the largely speculative Corporate projects known as Renewable Energy. These projects, wether they produce energy or not, will cost us all dearly for the rest of our lives.
5/13/2010 Howard Schorn
Comments:
Thanks so much for all you are doing, and for all the walking about! It warms the heart.
4/24/2010 Malinda in Marfa, Texas
Comments:
Overnight we seem to be facing an installation of over 1080 solar disks (Stirling) within one mile of a small historic town in West Texas. No one seems to have talked to local community leaders before they decided this was a good place for it. We want solar but think this is a bad choice of locations. Anyone have any insights?
4/22/2010 Marlene Land
Comments:
Help. We live in the high desert of Oregon. We are facing about 12 Solar Farms coming to Christmas Valley. Sizes from 5 megawatts, to the largest of 75 Megawatts on 640 acres of land. We're trying to find information of how property values are affected when these Solar Farms adjoin your property. I loved your site, very informative. And impressive photos. Thank you, Marlene
4/17/2010 Ron Parry
Comments:
I just discovered your website. I'm elated to find that someone is keeping track of these "green" projects. It looks like things are already in a sorry state given the number of proposals. Why not put solar panels on all the houses and factory roofs in LA instead of raping the desert?! The answer, I believe, is that centralized control of energy is the only model this society will allow.
4/13/2010 Randy V
Comments:
Good job in presenting how PV is really a solution in a hostile territory. It will only get better as the price of PV gets pushed closer and closer to the price of grid electricity. Right now we are approaching grid parity (with only the Federal 30% tax incentive) on the grid tied PV kits that are available at (www.SimpleEnergyWorks.com). We train AC electricians and bold DIY homeowners how to put up these systems themeselves (and save money at the same time time). Keep up the good work! Our environment needs all the help it can get! Randy
4/5/2010 Michael Garabedian
Comments:
SNWA has submitted 58 water rights application for Spring Valley. The Nevada State Engineer protest period ends April 19 for three and April 23 for the rest. 19 are wells for municipal use. Ivanpah has five applications for quasi-muni use, protest period ends 4/14/10.
2/6/2010 Bill Mcdonald
Comments:
Like the previous signer, I too recently started a blog (http://morongobillsbackporch.blogspot.com) devoted to the Mohave desert and the Mohave National Preserve. Your site has to be one of the most informative and factual on the net, especially in reference to the Mohave and this speculative bubble which seems to building with "clean energy" or the "solar industrial complex" as I call it. Keep up the good work!
1/11/2010 shaun
Comments:
Hi there, I started a blog in November (www.mojavedesertblog.com) to track policy developments affecting the natural resources, wilderness, and way of life in the Mojave. I was initially inspired by the activism of Basin and Range Watch and other groups speaking up against the ISEGs development over the past year, and I hope to provide another voice advocating for the desert and keep like-minded desert dwellers informed. Feel free to share my blog with other Basin and Range Watch followers.
Basin and Range Editors Respond: Thanks! Great blog. The more eyes watching over the desert the better.
12/27/2009 Dale Woods
Comments:
Thanks for the site, beautiful pictures. We live in Henderson and will be out next weekend to take a close look at the valley, thanks again. ps more pictures.
12/18/2009 a person
Comments:
ya sure a lot of bitching, and offer few alternatives. keep sucking on coal, pinheads.
12/18/2009 Denise Bensusan
Comments:
GREAT WEBSITE!
11/5/2009 Harvey and Marion Helf
Comments:
Please keep your vigilant watch! please e-mail us of any changes.
10/2/2009 Tony
Comments:
Thanks for posting such interesting links - I like Coyote Crossing a lot. LC has come a long way as an artist, we met through a mutual friend long ago and I was privileged to see some of her early work - simply wonderful. I am currently writing this from Death Valley where I have been working on an ongoing bat survey project. Anyways, good work - hope the solar industry stays out of the desert, sheesh "it's just a bunch of rocks"...give me a break! Cheers and keep up the good work! Tony P.S. I've seen two fairly fresh adult tortoise carcasses with bullet holes in them at Ivanpah - it's so sad what happens out there! Don't stop your efforts; they will make a difference for the future.
Basin and Range Watch Editors Respond: Hi Tony, thanks! --LC
10/1/2009 Howard Wilshire
Comments:
Whose arithmetic is wrong? Your editorial says 5 ac.ft./MW for solar trough, and Amargosa plans call for 150-1000 MW--that's 244 million to 1.6 billion gallons/yr, not 10 million?
Basin and Range Watch Editors Respond: Thanks for pointing that out.
9/30/2009 Howard Wilshire
Comments:
I would like to commend you for your fine commentary on renewable energy issues and the excellent photos. Have a look at: www.theamericanwestatrisk.com
9/29/2009 Anthony
Comments:
Nice work! I love the cartoons too. I read some recent comments about this site on a recent NPR story about solar power in the desert, and wanted to take a look. I'm an avid Basin and Range explorer too. Thanks for caring! Cheers, Anthony
9/22/2009 shaun
Comments:
thank you for what you do to protect this national treasure! The deserts of the southwest are part of our cultural fabric since the same vistas and wilderness inspired our Native American ancestors, challenged our country's earliest explorers, toughened the spirits of our settlers and offers a chance for everyone one of us to renew an aspect of our heritage today.
9/4/2009 Jerry Mossbarger
Comments:
As part time residents of Desert Center, we are interested in the potential impact of these large-scale projects on the habitat and general area. Thank you.
8/15/2009 KodaLV
Comments:
Harry Reid stops coal and gas, "you" want to stop solar and grid lines. What powers your vehicle? What heats/cools your residense? Your fiends,your families? Even nukes need power grids.
7/7/2009 another desert rat
Comments:
Why do you people hide behind your website? Put your name out there and be personally accountable for your distorted view points. I have no problems with free speech, but the dramatic fashion in which you skew facts is embarrassing to environmentalists everywhere!
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
Is that the name your parents gave you, "Desert Rat"? We are a group of volunteers. We live in remote rural areas, so we enjoy our privacy. Give us details of how we skew facts and we'll look into it, but the discussion on renewable energy deserves many perspectives and evidence from angles other than those shown by the mass media and big national environmental groups.
6/10/2009 Bill Bachman
Comments:
Thanks so much for your website. I especially remember kicking around in the Amargosa Desert with my Dad back in the 1970's. It's nice to see that area adressed in your photos... Thanks again
6/2/2009 dale
Comments:
The use of land for solar energy capture is probably one of the saving methods we can use for the planet. The impacts are so minor compared to the emissions of coal plants that are presently used, that this review of the Ivanpah operations is so skewed as to be irrational. In perspective, the impact is negligible if one applies science and not emotion.
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
First, the issue of "use of land" is a key point that we argue is backward: there is enough commercial and residential rooftop space to place solar panels that many cities could gain most of their electricity from local distibuted generation. Second, the impact to desert habitats by industrial solar plants is not "negligible." In the Applicant's Status Report #9 for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System dated May 22, 2009, BrightSource, the company seeking to construct the plant on pristine Mojave Desert land reveals that its original plan called for "significant grading" of natural terrain and vegetation, and "industrial grading and paving designs" over a desert ecosystem. Washes that carry flash floods would be "concreted." A new "Low Impact Design" would have less grading, but the application of petrochemical dust inhibitors and soil binders.
Basin and Range Watch is against coal mining and mountain-top removal as well, and other fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. But would people in those Appalachain woodland habitats support the complete grading of all vegetation and cementing in of streams on over 10,000 acres (the size of the final Ivanpah proposal) in order to build solar arrays? We think not. The deserts have just as rich and vibrant biological communities as eastern woodlands or other habitats being decimated by coal mining. That is why we support efficiency, energy conservation, and re-localized distributed generation like rooftop solar.
Last, you will have to factor in emotional content, as there are millions of us who love their deserts around the world, folks who will fight to the last to save them. Emotion is a good thing to have if you want to work towards saving the planet. If our review is so skewed, we invite you to send us your analysis of the Ivanpah project and we will publish it.
5/19/2009 Siva
Comments :
I think you guys are doing some great work and would love to be on your emailing list if you have one or facebook or myspace. I would love to volunteer to pass out some fliers or in any ways that I can. Please email me additional information. I live in Oregon and have never been to that part of the country. It's gorgeous and would like to know that it'll be there in the future when I get enough money to see that part of the area. Thank you, siva
5/18/2009 peter (pedro) kunkel
Comments:
I also live in a desert wastland. one the gov't chose to develope the atom bomb in. I live at 7,500 ft the air is rare up here. we try to keep lanl responsible but 'quien sabe'. keep up your vigilance! thank the lord for people like you! yours, pedro
4/26/2009 ken
Comments:
desert racing is good for nevada, has been for years. go back home and leave nevada to do it's own thing
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
Our home is in Nevada, deal with it.
4/26/2009 Javier Peñalosa
Comments:
Excellent site. I'm a displaced California desert-lover (currently in Buffalo NY and coastal Maine) and it's good to see the energy you folks are devoting to preservation of these wonderful landscapes and natural communities. I found the information on deserts as carbon sinks very interesting (not to mention counter-intuitive!), and I liked the bit about roof-tops vs. land as sites for solar collectors.
4/12/2009 Doris Emmerich
Comments:
I never realized how much more simple & much more common sense than stripping such desert beauty instead to use urban areas, already there. What can we do???
4/12/2009 John Lasseter
Comments:
Wonderful, wonderful work, folks! Despite years of volunteer work for high desert advocacy in Oregon, I was unaware of the industrial-scale alt energy impact before your educational work. Thank you, and keep it up.
4/7/2009 Peter Claunch
Comments:
You b******t story isnt fooling anyone. No cooperation from the ohv community? Ha! We work hand and glove with the BLM, not threaten them with lawsuits as you a*****e hippies do. It's never enough for you no life having p*****s. Yeah, I'm fed up with your kind, I am done being nice. I will use your own tactics to defeat you, see if you can take what you dish out. It's on, boys and girls, it's on!
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
We didn't say all that, the BLM personnel said this at a public meeting. Have you ever thought of attending one? P.S., You might want to learn how to spell your profanity if you want it to have a better effect on us! ;)
4/7/2009 dan200
Comments:
This is nuts. Every day of roaders right are being taken away. I participate in a professional off road race team. As a group we put on clean up events. The organization we race under in Nevada has some plenty of hoops we need to jump through just to use the desert for an organized race. Every day we have land taken away from us. We bring a ton of cash into the communities we race at. When will enough be enough. There are entire industries that decimate the earth and desert racers get vilified. This is a big planet and we have to share it. Please give us our race weekends. They are all we have left.
4/7/2009 Mike Childress
Comments:
As a overall winner of this race on a motorcycle I love this race. I see your problems and I understand why you guys would not want the race to come near your area. But we also brings thousands of dollars to some of this small desert town. Packing the hotels and buying all the fuel you have at your stations. Yes we have a few bad seeds that may act rowdy or rude but most of the races are really a great crowd of people to be around. Hope to see you guys later this year!
3/15/2009 out of doors
Comments :
Thank you for this thorough and intimate critique of the Ivanpah development plan. I might add that the 90 people whose jobs are created would likely be better served if the same jobs were created in an urban area, where the infrastructure is there to provide them with transportation, housing, food, and water. As for people who doubt the potential of rooftop solar, please look at the numbers. Just covering L.A.'s freeways and highways with solar arrays could produce 2,000 megawatts; enough to power every household unit in Los Angeles with ample megawattage left over.
3/11/2009 def ears
Comments:
tell you what, cry me a f***ing river, and i'll use it turn hydro-generators instead...it'll bring much needed moisture to the region too. it's a win(d)-win(d)!!!
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
Your comment shows that you are paying attention to our cause. Are we getting worried yet? Thanks for your support!
3/8/2009 Elwood Rousey
Comments:
Nice site. Its good to see that 713 people have viewed it. Funny how just a few people can can make such a big impact. For some people walking in the heat looking at rocks turns them on, for others racing through the desert does it fo them. What makes us think any of us are right? If we take to much of there land to play on they may revolt. Most of us dont have guns to defend ourselves. humm?
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
In rural areas many of us do own firearms, Elwood. Thanks for your comment.
3/5/2009 tom bond
Comments:
Thank you for this incredible essay. The irresponsibility of our governmnent has no bounds. This project must be masterfully mitigated to the desert's advantage. Regards,
2/25/2009 Rob Mrowka
Comments :
Keep up the excellent work...!
2/23/2009 Yermojoe
Comments :
Great to see a "cactus-roots" effort like this to help improve awareness over these issues. One improvement would be to open this website in MS Word to quickly identify and correct spelling/grammatical errors to make this site even more professional looking. Adding an 'About' page and a 'Contact' page might also be helpful, otherwise you run the risk of allowing other to characterize you and your site from their perspective rather than from yours. Just a thought. -- Regards, Joe ;)
2/2/2009 Rene Taylor
Comments :
Keep up your fight to stop the wind projects!! I live with my family in the middle of one in Illinois and it's HELL! Noise, which we were promised would not be a problem, Shadow flicker, flashing red lights at night,& oil leaking from the turbines. Turbines less than two years old are having their 5 ton generators replaced. This means the heavy equipment and cranes are back compacting the once fertile farm soil again!! usborne5@farmwagon.com
1/19/2009 Maria Klara
Comments :
What lovely colours! Once I saw a desert sunrise in California. And your slendid pics are so beautifully arranged. I am so happy there are people like you who love the desert and its wildlife. Urban sprawl and pollution must stop! --- Maria, Richmond, BC, Canada
1/17/2009 mesa
Comments:
Great site! Do you have any idea if hedge funds are involved in this all? Important Democrats invested?
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
Yes, there are dozens of alternative energy hedge funds now, and a lot of interest. Energyhedgefunds.com lists 46. Hedge funds are often risky but high-return funds available to institutions and wealthy investors. If well-managed they can outperform the stock market. If not, you get investors swindled out of $50 billion by Bernard Madoff in his fake hedge fund. Trouble is, they are quite secretive in what they do and who they allow in at times (which might change under Obama's promised transparency and regulation changes). Oil may have to go back to over $80 a barrel to make these investments really worth while. But a good question!
1/17/2009 - Brian Ertz
Comments :
Keep up the good work ! Brian Ertz Western Watersheds Project
1/17/2009 - Ralph Maughan
Comments:
I just found your great web site, and I linked to it from my blog. I have one important technical suggestion. You need to put a title in the HTML code for each of your web pages.
12/31/2008 - Robert Bernal
Comments:
I believe that rooftop is good but is not good enough to solve humanity's power needs, even if we conserve more. Thus I'm in favor of the green grid and many mirrors... 20,000 years from now, the Earth won't give a dam, whether it has a fowled methane rich atmosphere unsuitable for (human) life caused by global warming, or a perfect air with only excess sand caused from the deteriation of millions of concentrated solar thermal plants.
Basin and Range Editors Respond:
Thanks for all the comments!
Robert, if you were to actually compare the amount of actual space that all of the roof tops, structures, parking lots, etc. that are located in cities to the amount of space required to set up industrial solar installations, you would find that the amount of space equals that of all of the public lands proposed for this kind of "green" development. A bit of research would also tell you that current technology allows batteries to store energy generated from personal solar panels. Energy can not be stored from large industrial facilities, plus up to 15 percent of the energy can be lost in the long journey through a 100 mile long transmission line. Ask yourself, how power companies back up their energy investment when the sun is not shining. This will be done by using conventional fossil fuels. The proposed 9,000 acre Ivanpah Brightsource Energy Project located in the California Desert near the Nevada border will need to construct a natural gas pipeline just to back up the energy at night time. The sad truth is that every megawatt produced by an industrial clean energy facility will have to be backed up by an equal megawatt of dirty, carbon based fossil fuel. Not to mention all of the workers who will have to drive many miles into a rural area to maintain and operate a facility located 50 to 100 miles from the urban center the energy will be sent to. More than likely, they will not be driving electric cars. So your methane wasteland hypothesis for twenty thousand years down the road is only going to be accelerated by the industrial "green" energy scam. Why not keep the green energy local to the area it is being used? That uses the least energy.
As for the Earth not giving a damn what we do in 20,000 years, you are not making a very good case for your concerns about climate change!
--AT
12/18/2008 - Steven G. Herman
Comments:
Absolutely first-rate, and sorely needed. Keep up the good work and count me in. Let me know how I might help. Steve Herman
12/17/2008 - katie fite
Comments:
Great Website - good to see common sense and reason on supposed "green" energy development that tears apart wild lands. Fantastic photos, too! Thank you!
12/8/2008 - LC
Comments:
Wow! Looking at the Solar Desert page, I had no idea renewable energy like solar could have a bad side. Thanks for explaining this. It sure is a complex issue.
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