File this in the Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place File: We are destroying our economy with by giving into global warming hysteria. The Obama Adm. guaranteed a whopping federal loan guarantee of $2.1 billion to put a big solar power project in the Mojave Desert—which Jerry Brown touted as being worth (only) 1000 jobs. But now, a solar project has been stopped pretty much in its tracks by endangered tortoises. From the story:
The Obama administration has halted the building of two-thirds of a massive solar project in San Bernardino’s Mojave Desert as a new federal assessment found that more than 600 endangered desert tortoises would die as a result of construction. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management assessment this week disputed the estimate by BrightSource Energy, developer of the 392 MW solar thermal plant, that only 38 of the reptiles would be disturbed by construction at the 5.6-square mile Ivanpah Valley site near Primm, Nev...The federal order suspends construction activity on most of the Ivanpah project until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service redrafts a previous scientific opinion on the effect on the tortoise, which may come as soon as next month...
The BLM’s new assessment estimates that more than 3,000 acres of tortoise habitat would eventually be lost as a result of construction, and more than 160 adult tortoises in the project area will have to be captured and moved, in addition to 600 dying as a result of the project. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will use the new estimates to determine whether finishing the project puts the species in jeopardy. If not, the agency is expected to set new limits on how many animals may be killed, injured or harassed. Environmentalists wanted the energy complex relocated because they said it will harm tortoises. But BrightSource made design changes intended to alleviate environmental concerns.
Good grief.
So, which wins: Global warming hysteria or radical environmentalism? Do we save the planet or the tortoises? The law is indifferent to human enterprise in circumstances involving endangered species, so it would seem the tortoises. But the politics around “SAVING THE PLANET!” are huge! After all, if 600 shelled reptiles matter more than global warming, that certainly implies that the climate situation isn’t all that dire. Close call.
Me? I say build the solar panels. Humans flourishing matters more than tortoises. And can you imagine how much money is being...[evaporated]...by this delay?
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