Environmentalists make plea for desert preservation

Some environmentalists are breaking ranks and fighting the solar industry. The problem, as they see it, is that tens of thousands of acres of mostly pristine desert is slated for bulldozing to accommodate utility-scale solar power plants in Nevada and across the Southwest. The solar plant planned 4.5 miles southwest of the Primm Golf Course, for example, will eat up about 3,400 acres. About 20 people hiked across several miles of that desert Saturday. They’re members of the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project, and Basin and Range Watch, but last weekend they were acting independently of their organizations. The hike was a form of protest. The mission was to gather information about rare and endangered plants and animals that live on the proposed site of the solar plant. The hikers’ plan is to use their knowledge of life on the site to block the development or at least force it to move. Renewable energy developers have long been the darlings of environmental groups, but Saturday’s event highlights a growing rift within those groups...read more