“It became necessary to destroy the town desert to save it”

Rockhounds Object to Ill-Conceived Energy Plan

What do conservation groups, off-road vehicle (ORV) clubs, gem-mineral societies and rockhounds share in common? They are joining a growing chorus of voices challenging California’s Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). What? They’re anti-green energy? Really? No. Really, they’re not. But they are part of a groundswell that includes nature lovers, hydrologists, geologists, paleontologists, residential communities, small businesses and recreational users of public lands, who share the same concern that the DRECP is a blank check greenlighting the unfettered industrialization of public lands and some of California’s last unspoiled wild areas. Says Lisbet Thoresen, San Diego Mineral & Gem Society’s (SDMG) editor, “We’re not anti-green. We think distributed energy generation such as rooftop solar is a more sensible and economical alternative, creating and delivering energy near where it will be used. DG is sustainable and it does not come at the unnecessary cost of sacrificing the desert to produce and transmit energy to urban areas many miles away.” On projects built to date, Thoresen observes,”Project scale, site selection, and unpredictable weather have been critical factors that have made a mirage of creating a green energy oasis in the desert landscape. The natural dust and heat of the Mojave may be intractable obstacles to success, while the impact on wildlife and habitat exacts a disastrous toll.”

The DRECP is a California state-mandated directive, a 25-year plan focused on developing renewable energy projects (wind, solar, geothermal) in the California desert, an area encompassing 22.5 million acres. Said SDMG board member and American Lands Access Association president Shirley Leeson, “The DRECP has gotten very little input from our community, so if we don’t tell the DRECP what needs to be changed in this flawed document, then rockhounds can look forward to being fenced out of collecting areas, and we will become ghosts of the desert.”

The DRECP is an 8,000-page document. It is much too large and complicated for any one group to review and redress in just 115 days (the comment period closes Feb 23, 2015).  Since most people have a dim awareness of what the DRECP is and what its impact will have on them, getting a critical mass of effective comments submitted to the DRECP by February 23rd is a big challenge. Together with other gem-mineral clubs and desert advocacy groups, SDMG is trying to elevate public awareness. SDMG’s website has useful resources, tips, and calls to action. Anyone who wants to help get the word out will find brochures and posters that can be downloaded and printed from the SDMG Press Room or ordered (print-on-demand) at very low cost from the SDMG online news stand.

This article originally appeared in Pala International Mineral News, February 2, 2015.

Author’s note:  A long-form article, “Storm clouds gather over the California desert,” is a DRECP primer for mineral collectors and rockhounds, published at www.sdmg.org on January 26, 2015.