YUCCA VALLEY – Citizens met with county officials and consultants in Yucca Valley Thursday night, April 17, in an effort to guide the next 20 to 30 years of utility-scale renewable energy projects in the Hi-Desert.
PMC Consultant Mark Teague, right, led a group discussion about what Morongo Basin citizens would tolerate in the way of utility-scale energy projects during an Apr. 17 workshop – courtesy Rebecca Unger, The Desert Trail
The land-use planning document the county is using is also the grant application known as SPARC, the San Bernardino County Partnership for Renewable Energy and Conservation.
Consultants gave brief overviews of possible projects, from smaller rooftop and free-standing solar panels to 3,500-acre solar thermal installations to 10,200-acre wind turbine farms.
The 40-plus attendees in the Yucca Valley Community Center Yucca Room then broke into four smaller groups, with a county official or a consultant facilitating the discussion and writing comments on poster-size paper tablets.
“We feel that everyone’s ideas are important, so we do want to hear everything,” consultant Abby Woods told groups.
“We already have these ugly projects,” Ruth Rieman of Yucca Mesa bluntly told her consultant. “Can we have the county’s moratorium on new projects reinstated?”
“We’re a target for these projects,” Mark Lundquist of Joshua Tree told the county. “We’ve already been asked to draft a list of checkpoints for the applications.”
“There’s no carbon accounting for these projects,” April Sall of Pioneertown observed. “We can reach our renewable energy goals without harming desert life.”
“We’re looking to protect our way of life,” Mike Lipsitz from Landers said to the county’s Karen Watkins. “Southern California Edison will push utility-scale projects and not rooftop solar.”
“I don’t like the county’s goals as put forth in the grant,” Claudia Sall of Yucca Valley stated.
“We need to look at the effects on the national park and our cultural resources,” Seth Shteir from the National Park Conservation Association said.
“What can we do legislatively to counter the federal government’s view that the desert is a wasteland?” Dave Miller of Yucca Valley asked. “These are bad decisions made with no regulation.”
“The board of supervisors should abrogate the requirement to have 33 percent renewables and say it should be rooftops instead,” Dan Boening of Yucca Mesa declared.
“The county has some power over public lands,” Sid Sillian of Upland commented. “It could refuse to endorse these projects because of water use.”
“The process for permitting should be streamlined,” Mark Chappell of Morongo Valley asserted in his group. “If it’s not rejected in 12 months it should be approved.”
“That would reward the foot-dragging approach,” Joe Fairbanks of Joshua Tree shot back.
The county is planning 15 public workshops this year, with each of the five target communities getting three workshops. The renewables element is expected to be completed for the general plan update by next spring.
To see the complete comments from the meeting, review the SPARC document and monitor the county’s SPARC progress, log on to sparcforum.org.
More by Rebecca Unger at hidesertstar.com.