NATURAL RESOURCES JIM BRAMHAM NATURAL RESOURCES CONSULTANT
The Last Desert Advisory Council Meeting tour focused on a couple of large green energy developments near Primm, NV. The amount of land required for the boiling water (mirrors aimed at a tower) and a photovoltaic farm are huge. The first large scale boiling water project was built in the ’70 near the Barstow Daggett airport. It could not compete with other sources of power one on one and was torn down in the late 90’s. Photovoltaic has improved greatly in the past few years but no one on the tour could give a life expectancy past twenty years. The return on investment will run out before the payment books are fin- ished. One only needs to read the news of government backed solar companies dissolving with massive amounts of public money to know that even if a few projects succeed, the cost of this experiment will reach taxpayers and rate payers. In the past few years twenty one mil- lion acres of public land across the west (nearly the size of the entire 25 million acre California Desert) have been sacri- ficed for green energy. Here in California more land is needed to satisfy the Obama administration requirement of 20% green energy and the even stricter California 33% requirement.
There has been information about
the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) in the In Gear, presented at the South District meetings, as well as a regular topic in John Stewart’s updates. This prosses is to evaluate and determine where these bull- dozer-ready lands exist in the California desert. Even worse for those of us who love desert access, there is a requirement of offsetting mitigation, not of our activi- ties, but for species and habitat. There are no guidelines that support continued access to either the developed or mitiga- tion lands set in this process. On my way to the CA4WDC con- vention I drove through the new wind energy construction near Rosamond, CA. It struck me as so disconnected that these lands have been removed from
12 IN GEAR April-May 2012
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OHV entry to save one or more species of value that now in the name of green energy are being plundered for a very questionable return on public investment. As I watched scrapers and dozers level one of several 100-plus acre pads and viewed the road network to allow the construction and maintenance of these massive wind turbines, I could only think of how the idea of a small OHV trail net- work in the area was so roundly rejected a few years ago. Just one of these sub- station pads or the road to it would per- manently alter the area far more than all the OHV in the area could ever do. That and the carbon footprint is completely staggering. They are burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel for con- struction and transportation equipment, let alone the ongoing maintenance and personal travel. My guess is that the water trucks alone burn more fuel in a day than the energy from one turbine. All for what? An inconsistent generation source that is only economically feasible because of subsidies and government requirements.
The nasty truth is that for every KW of potential wind energy there must be back up generation developed from other full-time sources. The other sticky ques- tion is how to get the power to market. Transmission lines will require an addi- tional land and carbon footprints. Slowly the major news organizations have begun to report on the impacts of the first few of these projects on endangered wildlife. Tortoise death and displacement, bird strikes by windmills and takes of kangaroo rats and kit fox lead the concerns. It is very difficult to maintain any respect for groups and individuals who have complained so bitterly over the years that all OHV activities must be stopped for view shed and species pro- tection who are now the biggest propo- nents of large scale habitat destruction and major view shed development. While China is building 26 new nuke plants to power their future, we are building windmills. The old Spanish novel of Don Quixote speaks of fighting windmills and exercises in futility of a detonating mind. We seem to be on a similar adventure.
The same public policy guidance has stopped oil development in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska as well as barring the construction of a major pipeline from Canada to the Gulf. The government is acting as if we will not need oil in the foreseeable future.
America has a huge transportation network that is totally run on oil. No one is talking about solar powered airplanes, or windmill powered trains. The trucking industry is using a few CNG trucks for short runs but can’t move large loads over long distances on any foreseeable fuel other than oil. Agriculture also uses large quantities of fuel for planting, cultivat- ing, harvesting and transporting of their products. All this has a direct effect on the cost of food and goods at the local store. In an even more unexplainable contradic- tion, the government now owns two large American auto manufacturers. On one hand they want the public to go in and sign a seven year note for a vehicle that by most estimates will last in excess of ten years. On the other, the same government is working to make the cost to operate that vehicle higher than necessary. Oh, I forgot we all need to buy an electric car and plug them in to a windmill. So how does this relate to OHV man- agement? The BLM is the lead agency on most of the green energy projects and this has stretched their workloads and budgets in ways that can impact OHV recreation. It is up to the OHV commu- nity to find ways to partner with them to deliver services that promote a safe and responsible recreation atmosphere and protects resources.
As the automakers are forced to build lighter and smaller vehicles, Americans will be left with fewer choices for RVs, trucks and utility vehicles. This will impact our recreation possibilities and priori- ties. Land use is our top battle, but if we have no economical way to get there or vehicles for access we have won only half the battles.
When I am asked what are you doing do about this? I turn it around with one word….VOTE! IG
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