The crunch is on.  After ignoring the need to develop renewable energy for decades, we’re scrambling to find alternatives to fossil fuels.  Everybody’s affected, but not everybody is being asked to pay the same price:

“The Morongo Basin Conservation Association strongly supports the pursuit of alternative energy sources.  However, we recognize that the Mojave Desert has the potential to become a sacrifice area in this pursuit, and to avoid exploitation the Morongo Basin Conservation Association advocates that desert citizens and organizations must be represented in the development of alternative energy planning for the desert areas, including energy corridors.”

This statement was adopted by MBCA in November 2007 in the face of a rash of proposals to exploit the desert areas for energy programs, including the Green Path North transmission corridor and scores of solar industrial projects throughout the Mojave.  The potential for the greater desert area to be sacrificed in a panicked reaction to rising energy prices after decades of poor planning and negligence is very real. 

None of these projects originated in the Mojave, and none have consulted with the people of the Mojave in their planning and development stages.  Further, none of them have demonstrated that they will benefit the desert areas; the energy is for delivery elsewhere.  And, finally, they all will have potentially devastating impacts on desert lands, vegetation, wildlife, and communities. 

At the same time, Southern California is full of rooftops that could be providing for our solar needs, and yet there is no comparable push for supporting such decentralized solutions. 

Energy is an issue that affects everyone, including the residents of the Morongo Basin.  How do we find our way to a new era of energy use, development, and conservation that will be sustainable, realistic, and fair to everyone?  The answers are still unclear, but what IS clear is that the citizens and beings of the Mojave must be fully represented in the search for solutions, if those solutions would be made on our backs.

Watch this space as MBCA develops its energy program and policy, and for the latest updates tune in regularly to the Energy posts on the frequently updated MBCA blog.  We invite your participation – please join us, and add your voice, experience, and energy at a critical moment.

Green Path North is a proposed power corridor of 500-kilovolt transmission lines that the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power wants to carve through pristine desert and desert communities from Desert Hot Springs to Hesperia, impacting Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Pioneertown, Pipes Canyon, Flamingo Heights, Landers, Johnson Valley, and more – and with no benefit to the desert!   MBCA strongly supports the work of the California Desert Coalition in opposition to this project and urges you to join the effort.  Together we can beat this project; after all, stopping a transmission corridor is how MBCA got its start!  Find out more at California Desert Coalition, and tune in regularly to the Energy posts on the frequently updated MBCA blog.

Solar industrialization The Mojave Desert has been identified as THE best place for large-scale solar projects because of its high proportion of sunny days, level land at high elevation, and proximity to power consumers.  At the same time, newly revised state and federal regulations and policies are providing incentives and a favorable climate for solar industrialization.  The result?   The Bureau of Land Management is scrambling to handle a huge surge of applications for large-scale solar projects in the Mojave, threatening just about every sizable patch of relatively flat public land in our desert.  What would be the impact of immense fields of solar arrays blanketing the desert?  What would be the benefits to desert residents?  What efforts are being made to install solar on rooftops in areas that are already developed?  It’s critical that desert residents have a place at the table as these questions are considered.  To follow this situation as it develops, and learn ways you can be involved, tune in regularly to the Energy posts on the frequently updated MBCA blog.

ALERT: Your input is needed! The public has an opportunity to comment on this issue through the Solar Energy Development Programmatic Environmental Impact Study (PEIS) process recently announced jointly by the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy. Read more about the PEIS and how to participate here. The first opportunity for input is the Scoping process, with a deadline of July 15, 2008. Read MBCA's own Scoping comments here. Check back to this page for updates on this important process, or stay current by reading the Energy posts on the MBCA blog.