Coyote Crossing

RELEASE: Destructive Ivanpah Solar Project approved in Mojave Desert Core Habitat

For Immediate Release

Destructive Ivanpah Solar Project approved in Mojave Desert Core Habitat
Renewable energy coalition calls for halt to misguided industrial development on fragile wildlands

October 7, 2010: Solar Done Right (SDR), an

Wearing your convictions on your sleeve

I’ve taken the “Ivanpah Valley: Worth More Than Megawatts” poster and made a CafePress shop with merchandise bearing the design. All proceeds from this section of the shop will be donated to the Desert Protective Council to support the DPC’s work

CEC responds to your comments on Ivanpah

Or at least they sort of respond to some of them.

The document embedded below is the “Errata to the Presiding Members Proposed Decision” on Ivanpah SEGS by the California Energy Commission, in which they detail changes to the PMPD document based

Camp Ivanpah: The Video

Journalist Claes Andreasson, who has been doing good work covering desert solar for Swedish Public Radio and other outlets, came out to see us at Camp Ivanpah the week before last. He interviewed a number of participants, including yours truly, and

Blythe, if anything, is worse

I have a personal connection to the Ivanpah Valley, so that’s what you’ve been reading about here for the most part.

On Wednesday the California Energy Commission approved a solar project that would be twice the size of Ivanpah. The contractor is

Its name comes from the Chemehuevi for “clean water”

Last night, Wednesday night, I sat atop my sleeping bag and looked out across the Ivanpah Valley. The first-quarter moon was an hour from slipping behind the summit ridge of Clark Mountain. The Pleiades were a rough blur low in the east. They were

Group to Protest on Site of Proposed Ivanpah Solar Electrical Plant

[A release we sent out last week, embargoed until today.]

Project needlessly destructive of fragile desert, endangered species habitat

Camp Ivanpah, a group that opposes the pending construction of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station in

This is weather in the Mojave

Via Morongo Bill and The Guzzler, this is a result of a somewhat stronger than normal rainstorm in the Mojave Desert. This happened on US 395 just south of the Owens Valley and north of Ridgecrest.

That’s a small storm. In Summer 1997 a somewhat

Non-depressing Ivanpah item

The alluvial fan pictured here is about five miles north of Nipton. I always meant to go for a little hike through the canyon that feeds it, and probably ought to soon.

Anyway, Geoblogger Kyle House has some interesting observations about this

How you can help save Ivanpah — a concrete action

The California Energy Commission has indicated that if they get more public comment on their proposed decision to approve the Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System, they may have to delay their decision.

I can’t stress how important even a short

Driving stakes into the heart of the desert

A note from Laura Cunningham of Basin and Range Watch just popped into my inbox:

Hi Chris,

Kevin and I are at Ivanpah, and BrightSource has starting staking out the entrance road, Colosseum Road, for tortoise exclusion fencing! We are not sure

Worth one kiloword

… (continues)

Paving the ancient desert

Above is a map, adapted from the BLM’s Geocommunicator site, of the Ivanpah Valley. The aerial image covers about 25 miles of the desert left to right. Interstate 15 is the broad blue stripe running more or less vertically. The boundaries of the

Last Summer at Ivanpah

Ancient desert slated for destruction. Laura Cunningham photo.

There is a story that has haunted me since I first heard it, and it comes to mind often these days. It was in the early 1960s, and the Sierra Club — playing politics in order to save

Bad news on Ivanpah Solar

The California Energy Commission has approved the hideously destructive Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System. From their notice, forwarded to Coyote Crossing by our friends at Basin and Range Watch;

This Decision contains the Commission’s

Fantastic news: Ivanpah Airport project suspended

Last week the Mojave Desert got some good news for a change:

Development of the proposed Ivanpah Airport, considered crucial to Southern Nevada’s future just a few years ago, has been suspended indefinitely because of lower passenger numbers and

Desert Solar Is Not Renewable Energy

[A sneak preview of a piece I wrote this week for the Desert Protective Council’s upcoming Educational Bulletin. I cribbed a few sentences from my earlier post on ancient blackbrush forests.]

As the reality of human-generated climate change grows

Cathedral Range, Thanksgiving 2007

Along the Tioga Road, Yosemite National Park

Thanksgiving was always his day. Almost two decades of a house full of people each year, him begging for snacks at the center of it. The first time the holiday rolled around after he died we couldn’t

Morongo Bill Visits Ivanpah

Coyote Crossingian* Morongo Bill left his Backporch for a couple days and went out to what old desert hands still call the “East Mojave” — The Mojave National Preserve and my adopted home, Ivanpah Valley.  He took a hike on the site of the proposed

Back out from the outback

I’ve been asking people over on Facebook to donate to the Desert Protective Council as a birthday present, and today my DPC colleague mentioned she couldn’t find the link here. Because there wasn’t one! Here it is.

The last couple days have been