California Senate Bill 772, which would have provided a supportive policy for hydroelectric energy storage projects like the Eagle Mountain project, failed to pass a full Senate vote. The bill could be reintroduced next year. Read details in this Desert Sun article and in the pre-vote Los Angeles Times opinion piece against the bill.

MBCA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Desert-Wise Landscape Tour Essay Contest. Six thoughtful and enthusiastic essays were submitted. The essays were ranked by a panel of 3 judges based on the instruction “Describe your experience and/or comment on how you will apply what you learned on the 2019 Desert-Wise Landscape Tour.”

While not directly supporting the Eagle Mountain hydropower and storage project, the passage of SB 772 would require California to support projects that would store energy as part of the state's plan to increase renewable energy production. The increasing amount of solar and wind energy is more than can be used as it is produced, so storage becomes more important to continue reducing non-renewable energy consumption. This in-depth article in the Los Angeles Times provides perspective from both industry and environmental perspectives.

Senate Bill 307 passed through the California Senate and will next need approval in the Assembly to provide additional environmental review for groundwater transfers like the proposed Cadiz project. Read details about SB 307 from the Desert Sun.

The Daggett Solar project northeast of the Morongo Basin near Daggett and Newberry Springs proposes a five-and-a-half square mile array that would bring more damage than benefit to the area's residents and to the Mojave Desert. In MBCA's April 29, 2019 comment letter, Pat Flanagan outlines the issues and illustrates through photos and maps how the project is flawed despite proposed mitigations. Also noted as likely outcomes are a reduction in human quality of life, for reasons of fugitive dust with health consequences and reduced viewsheds affecting tourism. Potential damage to wildlife and birds, increased temperatures from heat island effects, and reduced panel effectiveness due to dust accumulation are other situations explored in the richly illustrated letter.  

"THANK YOU - IT IS DONE AND WE HAVE WON!" 

In a press release delivered on Friday, May 10, Senator Dianne Feinstein urged the California Senate Appropriations Committee to approve SB 307 for further Senate consideration. The bill is key to protecting the California Desert from severe aquifer reduction should the Cadiz Water Project be approved. She states, “Enhanced state review is already in place for other treasured places in California, such as Lake Tahoe, San Francisco Bay and the California coastline. I strongly believe that California’s iconic desert merits the similar enhanced state review that SB 307 would provide.” Also, "I believe SB 307 is key to ensuring desert groundwater basins are not harmfully exploited by creating a commonsense state review process that safeguards California’s fragile desert lands and groundwater basins." The bill is scheduled for a hearing on May 16. Additional information can be found on Mojave Watch.org(no longer available) and the LA Times wrote an editorial against the project on May 15.