Via Larry Hogue, an article on the National Parks Conservation Association website:
The Mojave Desert is on fire. Private land worth $500 an acre five years ago is now selling for as much as 20 times that amount, with Fortune 500 companies scrambling to place their bids. A steady flow of entrepreneurs from individuals to industry leaders are swamping the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with permit applications that would affect almost a million acres of federal land.
Why all the fuss? California’s going solar.
“It’s like a gold rush,” says Michael Cipra, NPCA’s California desert program manager. “And that raises a very important question: Should our collective energy future be about striking it rich, or should it be about finding the proper balance between development and our environment?”
