Feds Laud Solar Project Near National Park, Forget to Mention Park

There's something unusual about the Interior Department's PR blitz to mark the formal launch of the massive Desert Sunlight Solar Farm next door to Joshua Tree National Park: Interior doesn't mention the Park anywhere in its press release. The 550-megawatt solar project, approved in August 2011 on Joshua Tree NP's 75th birthday, is surrounded on three sides by the popular desert park's remote and wild eastern sections. The project's eastern fence runs within about a mile of the park boundary in the Coxcomb Mountains. But you won't learn that from the Interior Department's press release celebrating the formal opening of the plant, which doesn't mention the 1,234-square-mile National Park even in passing.  The Interior Department's press release lauding the project does take pains to describe its location, but neglects to mention the local landmark most likely to be recognized by Southern Californians...This isn't the first time national parks have gone curiously unmentioned in discussion of solar facilities proposed for their fencelines. The proposed Soda Mountain solar project in San Bernardino County, whose fate is expected to be determined by a BLM decision this month, would be within a mile of some of the wildest parts of the 2,400-square-mile Mojave National Preserve. Nonetheless, early detail maps of the project prepared for public scoping meetings by BLM staff omitted the Preserve...more