"Green Lights for Big Solar Projects on Fed Lands"

Two major solar project "milestones" have received their first-ever green lights to be set up on federal lands. These projects have been on the boards for five years, but now they can be put into action. The bigger of the two projects covers ten square miles and will be located east of San Diego, the other one will cover one square mile and will be in Southern California. Both of these, along with numerous other requests, are located in uninhabited desert land. While it may seem like the amount of land they will occupy is large, the larger one covering 6,800 acres of public land, there are actually "11 million acres of public lands in the California Desert, ... These projects, while a significant commitment of public land, actually represent less than one-hundredth of one percent of that total area." It may have taken so long to receive the green lights because biologists say there is a "potential impact on habitats for bighorn sheep and a rare lizard" with the projects. However, the two projects combined will generate enough electricity to power more than 213,000 homes. Construction on both projects is planned to begin by the end of 2010, and will create about 1,000 jobs. California also has a rigorous plan to get one third of their electricity from renewable sources in ten years. 


Let's all give California a round of applause!! This is wonderful news! I wasn't a person who believed in 'Global Warming' when it was so highly publicized, but now I'm taking an environmental science class and I'm learning what is actually happening to our earth. Right now we are adding an extra 4 billion parts of carbon to the atmosphere... that stacks up fast. I heard about the possibility of putting up 'solar farms' in the deserts a while ago, and thought that would be great! The land isn't being used, so why not put it to use in a way that could in the end save us thousands and thousands of dollars, and save the planet? And I have to say, the whole reasoning from the biologists "[there is] a potential impact on habitats" for two species... I think of it this way; just think of all of the species that have become extinct or endangered because of global warming and the harmful impact we have made on the planet. Now think of all of the species that will die if we continue living the way we are at this exact moment... Personally, I would be extremely willing to "potentially" give up those two species by taking actions to save hundreds if not thousands of other species in their place. Even with the chance of losing two species, when comparing the pros and cons of solar farms, the pros strongly outweigh the cons. Just imagine, enough energy to power 200,000 homes... The entire population of Alexandria is 15,000 rounded up, even if everyone of those people had their own home, we would barely make a dent in that 200,000. Everyone knows we need to take the steps to get off of fossil fuels and start taking carbon out of the atmosphere instead of putting it in. If the government would take the steps and show that energy saving is an important issue, no questions asked this would be a green country. So let's use California as an example and make it happen!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39521200/ns/us_news-environment/