Is Obama trying to save his neck or save the environment?

The solar PEIS planning effort has focused on identifying locations on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) areas that are most suitable for solar energy development. These areas have been characterized as “excellent solar resources, good energy transmission potential and relatively low conflict with biological, cultural and historic resources.”

However, although this scheme is four years in the making, the comments collated for the purpose of this project to evaluate potential environmental, social and economic effects of the proposed legislation, is rife with cynicism, leading to the conclusion that this scheme could be interpreted as a desperate effort by President Obama to hold on to his office.

Opinions ranged from disbelief that the government will be spending money on such a large-scale project, when it would be much more cost-effective to offer each resident their own installation and complaints from environmentalists about a lack of concern for wildlife.

“It seems to me that if you offered every home owner the chance to have a solar panel placed on the roof of their house, give them the power needed to run the house, take the excess power generated into the grid for powering buildings with no roof space, and everybody would be happy. It really seems so simple and that is why it will never get brought to the table,” said a commentator who wished to remain anonymous.

As Fabrice Coustier from the Laboratory of materials and Process for PV sums up: “I think it is courageous, great for solar and I think it is good for the US in the long term in order to get out of non-renewable energies, but I am sure that there are going to be a lot of critics from the green “fundamentalists” who are going to say that it is dangerous for the wilderness to install PV and/or windmills on public lands and/or not landscape/scenic route-friendly at the end. The conservatives are going to be against renewable energies in general and against Obama by principle anyway!”

Another commentator said, “The federal government needs to do more to encourage local distributed solar installations instead of massive public utility-scale project on federal land. Local distributed installations minimize the need for new transmission, make better use of existing infrastructure and protect open spaces from large scale energy development.”

Disgruntled environmentalists can be summed up in this quote: “Without preserving wildlife corridors, biodiversity within ecosystems is depleted. Preserving biodiversity is vital in the fight against climate change, as well as extinction of wildlife.

“While desert and arid environments have obvious advantages in terms of sunshine, they are also very delicate environments. When you “study intensively” the 1000 square miles of area, please take enough time to assure that you are not simply creating another disaster in the name of satisfying Americans' insatiable appetite for energy. I would also encourage you to study locations optimized for other priorities in addition to sunny days. The leading nation in solar energy is Germany, and no part of Germany has optimal sunny days. Logically, absolute maximum sunshine may not be necessary for solar power to be practical.”

Another comment concluded that, “It seems like a project this size would damage a functioning ecosystem, so I am encouraging solar energy development, but please lets not sacrifice pristine areas because it is the “easiest” or “cheapest” to build on, rather than reclaimed land.”

The government argues: “This blueprint for landscape-level planning is about facilitating faster, smarter utility-scale solar development on America’s public lands,” said secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “This is a key milestone in building a sustainable foundation for utility-scale solar energy development and conservation on public lands over the next two decades.”

However, the government should not underestimate the power of local people. Last year, environmental groups raised concerns about SunPower’s 250MW California Valley Solar Ranch and the 550MW Topaz Solar Farm. In order to placate the protestors, SunPower agreed to increase the company’s conservation efforts in the region.

Under the agreements, SunPower stated it would add more than 9,000 acres to the 17,000 acres they had already agreed to preserve. The company also promised to remove 30 miles of fencing in the area, allowing greater wildlife traffic.

Additionally, SunPower’s 110MW Quinto solar project proposed for Merced County, came under criticism from farmland advocates and environmental groups.

Eventually, the PEIS will identify 17 Solar Energy Zones (SEZs), totalling approximately 285,000 acres of public lands, as priority areas for utility-scale solar development, with the potential for additional zones through ongoing and future regional planning processes. The blueprint also allows for utility-scale solar development on approximately 19 million acres in what the DoI and DoE has termed “variance” areas, which lie outside of identified SEZs. In total, the Final PEIS estimates a total development of 23,700MW from the 17 zones and the variance areas, enough renewable energy to power 7 million American homes, claims the administration. Over a 20 year time frame.

“Developing America’s solar energy resources is an important part of President Obama’s commitment to expanding American-made energy, increasing energy security, and creating jobs,” said energy secretary Steven Chu. “This new roadmap builds on that commitment by identifying public lands that are best suited for solar energy projects, improving the permitting process and creating incentives to deliver more renewable energy to American homes and businesses.”