Oil Industry to Profit from Ivanpah Solar Project

Enbridge -- Canada's largest transporter of crude oil with projects in the infamous tar sands -- will now profit from a solar project in the Ivanpah Valley, according to Reuters.  Enbridge is buying First Solar's Silver State North project, which destroyed nearly a square mile of ecologically intact desert habitat that serves as a critical genetic linkage for the threatened desert tortoise and other species.  First Solar is also proposing to expand this project with a much larger second phase known as Silver State South.  These facilities use the same type of solar panel that can just as easily be installed on rooftops or on already disturbed lands.

Photo by Basin and Range Watch of the Silver State North project, which bulldozed nearly a square mile of intact desert habitat.
Enbridge is proudly touting its purchase of Silver State North as a "green" badge of honor.  It appears to be lost on Enbridge that they are profiting from the isolation of desert tortoise populations and destruction of prime Mojave Desert wildlands. But then again, what would Enbridge care? They are responsible for a good share of the carbon emissions that also have a tight vice on our natural treasures.  This is the new energy frontier -- big corporations making money by bulldozing public lands.  Sound familiar?

Photo by Basin and Range Watch of a swath of desert that is now being targeted by First Solar for its Silver State North project, over the objections of conservationists and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

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