Tessera Solar Project Could Kill 18 Tortoises for 60 MW

The California Energy Commission's (CEC) preliminary approval of Tessera Solar's Calico Solar power project would permit the company to build in some of the most sensitive and highest quality desert tortoise habitat available in the area.   The CEC Commissioners could have chosen a less destructive layout that avoids the highest quality habitat, but instead approved the more destructive layout, known as "Scenario 5.5."  For 60 extra megawatts, the CEC is permitting the potential loss of 18 extra tortoises.

Two Calico Solar Layouts Presented to the CEC

Scenario 5.5:
  • Megawatts: 663.5 MW
  • Acres: 4,613
  • Estimated tortoise disturbance: 22 tortoises (not including tortoise eggs)
Scenario 6:
  • Megawatts: 603.9
  • Acres: 4,244
  • Estimated tortoise disturbance:  4 tortoises
If given final approval, "Scenario 5.5" would kill or displace at least 22 desert tortoises, according to a US Fish and Wildlife Service estimate.   Scenario 6--the slightly smaller layout--would only displace or kill 4 tortoises.    Tessera Solar says it can produce a mere 60 megawatts (MW) more with scenario 5.5,  so essentially the CEC and Tessera Solar decided that an additional 18 potential tortoise deaths is an acceptable exchange.    

Screenshot of "Scenario 5.5", showing desert tortoise burrows found on the site.  The highest quality habitat toward the top of the site, and the tortoise exclusion fencing in yellow.
Keep in mind that other approved solar projects are far less destructive.  The Beacon Solar and Abengoa Solar power projects will each produce 250MW, and probably not result in a single tortoise death.


Another issue that arose during the 20 September hearings for the Calico Solar power project is the fact that tortoise exclusion fencing (designed to prevent tortoise entry to the construction area) will be installed even deeper into the high quality habitat.  It is not clear why Tessera Solar needs to essentially obstruct tortoise access to habitat that the company will not even use for the operation of the project.

The CEC issued the Presiding Member's Proposed Decision this weekend, which starts a 30 day public comment period.  The decision is not final until the CEC considers and addresses public concerns.

If you wish to send public comments regarding the Calico Solar power project, you can follow the following instructions:

Send an e-mail AND hard copy to the CEC.  The email and letter have to include the Docket number (Docket No. 08-AFC-13).  The email address is docket@energy.state.ca.us. The mailing address is: Energy Commission’s Docket Unit, 1516 Ninth Street, MS-4, Sacramento, CA 95814.  For more information, see the CEC public notice on the CEC Calico website.

If you need help or would like advice on how to craft more effective public comments, email me at boundless.liberty@gmail.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Many Plants Species in the Desert?

Would you expect that California's desert hosts gives the redwood forest a run for its money when it comes to plant biodiversity?  It's easy to take the desert for granted when all you want to do is zoom through it on the highway and get to your destination. But you are passing by an amazing and biologically diverse ecosystem.  There are at least 2,450 native plant species found in California's desert, according to a great article by Chris Clarke on desert life , posted at KCET. If you want to learn more about our amazing deserts, join Desert Biodiversity, a new organization dedicated to exploring, respecting and defending the deserts.
Read more

Mowing Vegetation as Mitigation: Trump Administration Practice Goes Unchallenged

Image
The Trump administration is again touting the practice of mowing thousands of acres of desert vegetation as environmentally-responsible, despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary.  The draft environmental review of the Yellow Pine Solar project in southern Nevada claims that vegetation mowing - as opposed to bulldozing - will yield positive outcomes that are highly doubtful.   This positive framing of the construction practice misleads the public and decisionmakers and ignores decades of scientific research regarding the impacts of mechanized disturbance on desert wildlands.  According to the draft environmental review: "Mowing is becoming the standard on large site-type ROWs to prevent permanent impairment of public lands (as mandated by FLPMA) and in lieu of off-site mitigation... Mowing methods are designed to help preserve soils, biological soil crusts, soil seed banks, native perennial vegetation diversity and structure, and cacti and yucca species, and t...
Read more

Unlikely Allies: Trump Administration Joins Enviros to Plan Solar Project on Prime Tortoise Habitat

Image
The Trump Administration this month released an assessment that concludes that a solar developer can crush and mow vegetation across several square miles of prime desert tortoise habitat, and still consider those lands as viable habitat for the species.  The silence of some national-level environmental groups regarding the unconventional and unscientific conclusion appears to signal their comfort taking risks with a species already facing significant peril, as well as these groups' inability to champion more sustainable locations to generate clean energy in Nevada. The biological opinion released by the Trump Administration constitutes the official position of the Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the impacts of the proposed Gemini Solar project; its curious willingness to declare heavily disturbed lands as viable tortoise habitat was necessary for the project's approval because the project would be built on lands that have been identified as a vital habitat linkage sustai...
Read more