During the 70's a campaign was launched to build highly destructive big solar projects on large sections of public lands. The immense ecological destruction these projects would cause was not acceptable then, as archaic mirror based technology failed to prove its worth. Unfortunately we are once again facing this threat!
Today's version of yesterday's failure is being called "Big Solar Renaissance." It features hundreds of proposed projects which will destroy millions of acres of public lands. Furthermore numerous families may lose their homes as governments allow utility companies to capture private property by exercising eminent domain power. Thousands of miles of unnecessary transmission lines, based on19th century technology will be added to our Nation's antiquated and dangerous power grid. Additionally, millions of gallons of scarce desert groundwater will be lost every year by each concentrated solar plant to wash the thousands of mirrors and generate steam to turn turbines.
The Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT) is a California based organization whose board is comprised mostly of representatives from large energy producers, utility companies and staff of the Sierra Club and National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). Thus, a very questionable alliance of environmental organizations, energy corporations and public and private utility companies has been formed.
California's attempt to reach legislatively mandated renewable energy goals is being engineered by the California Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, commonly known as RETI. Representatives from CEERT direct RETI's Stakeholders Steering Committee. CEERT coordinates energy generators, utility companies, government regulators and environmental organizations to define geographic zones where concentrated solar plants and transmission lines will be sited. Indeed what has occurred is a serious erosion of the checks and balances designed to protect consumers and our environment.
CEERT's Big Solar Project Proposal identifies how the energy companies plan to handle environmentalists and the press to "greenwash" us into sacrificing the wilderness for investor profit. This document was posted on CEERT's website, but immediately removed after the February 29, 2008 CEERT forum in Riverside, California. There the Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy raised concerns about the lack of checks and balances. Incidentally, the press was barred from attending the February 29th CEERT forum and the one who did attend was asked to leave after being discovered.
You can read the report by clicking on it below. Sections with questionable statements have been highlighted, but we encourage you to read the entire document and view the Big Solar Renaissance video. See for yourself how CEERT board member Carl Zichella from the Sierra Club staff, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's General Manager David Nahai have joined with others in this "greenwashing" video that attempts to sell the sacrifice and destruction of the Mojave Desert's fragile ecosystem.
Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy P.O. Box 396, Joshua Tree, CA 92252
"supporting renewable energy that does not sacrifice our environment"
