{"id":7026,"date":"2012-03-05T00:42:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T00:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=7026"},"modified":"2012-03-05T00:43:10","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T00:43:10","slug":"its-not-easy-being-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/its-not-easy-being-green\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s not easy being green"},"content":{"rendered":"

California might have to decide between saving the desert tortoise and promoting its anti-global warming agenda: a major solar power project in the Mojave Desert <\/a>keeps disturbing the ancient reptiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BrightSource has spent $56 million so far to protect and relocate the tortoises, but even at that price, the work has met with unforeseen calamity: Animals crushed under vehicle tires, army ants attacking hatchlings in a makeshift nursery and one small tortoise carried off to an eagle nest, its embedded microchip pinging faintly as it receded.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

The company made its first concession to the tortoise during planning, giving up about 10% of its expected power output in a redesign that reduced the project footprint by 12% and the number of 460-foot-tall “power towers” from seven to three.<\/p>\n

BrightSource also agreed to install 50 miles of intricate fencing, at a cost of up to $50,000 per mile, designed to prevent relocated tortoises from climbing or burrowing back into harm’s way.<\/p>\n

The first survey of tortoises at the site found just 16. Based on biological calculations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued BrightSource a permit to move a maximum of 38 adults, and allowed a total of three accidental deaths per year during three years of construction. Any more in either category and the entire project would be shut down.<\/p>\n

The limit put the company under enormous pressure, as more and more tortoises began cropping up and BrightSource’s project came closer to the federal thresholds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least it’s not the Kennedy’s objecting to windmills off their Nantucket compound, but the tortoises may be almost as well-connected.\u00a0 Nuclear power, anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California might have to decide between saving the desert tortoise and promoting its anti-global warming agenda: a major solar power project in the Mojave Desert keeps disturbing the ancient reptiles.\u00a0   BrightSource has spent $56 million so far to protect … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7026"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7032,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7026\/revisions\/7032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}