Conservation and Clean Energy Collide in the California Desert (Sierra Magazine)

Sierra MagazineMarch 29th, 2018...Conservationists are also frustrated that DRECP has been unceremoniously reopened after years of hard work. Over the course of its development, DRECP went through severe growing pains. In 2015, renewable energy developers and conservationists wrote an unusual joint letter to federal officials in which they complained about the plan’s “pervasive lack of clarity.” But by the time the plan was completed in the fall of 2016, it represented an achievement across coalitions. “The plan as it stands was the product of eight years of compromise and coordination and collaboration,” said Frazier Haney, conservation director at the Mojave Desert Land Trust. “If we open the plan now and undo that compromise, we could be making it more difficult to permit appropriate renewable energy in the desert”...Read Full Article