San Bernardino County is home to the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility [1], which is a mirror-focused solar thermal power plant. It generates a lot of glare and is controversial for its impact on animals. It also took several years to ramp up to its promised output. Solar panels don't have problem with glare, but the landscape of the county has large viewsheds of sloping treeless desert, so any facility will have a large…
IANABotanist, but I wonder if there are plants that do well in sandy soil and shade that could be used as ground cover underneath the panels and keep the dust down.
California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
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Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#102In USA local authority is derived from the state, so ca legislature can wipe out the county laws with some small legislation. Ianal
Probably not a good precedent to set.
Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not how journalism is supposed to work. One of the first lessons in Journalism 101 is if one source says the weather is sunny and another source says it's raining then a competent reporter should look out the window! https://amp.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2012/08/08/th...
And when one source says they think it will rain in 20 days, and another says it they think it will not rain in 20 days?
Without facts and common assumptions, opinions are noise.
Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#104Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#105Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
They’re just reporting what each side is saying without arguing against their claims. They leave it to the reader to make of it what they will. In my personal opinion, this is how reporting should be. Don’t do my thinking for me and don’t lead me in a particular direction. I doubt most people actually believe dust has anything to do with it. They don’t want these infrastructure projects near them, plain and simple.
There are plenty of readers who aren't sophisticated enough to judge for themselves. This is exactly analogous to the vaccine debate. Journalists can and should add context where one side's argument is not supported by evidence.
You might appeal to the nature of democracy mandating 'your' view, yet I would argue that this view is precisely what's causing a deterioration of our democratic processes. This push towards trying to encourage people who have no basis for taking a stance on issues, to take a stance, waters down the views of the informed and returns us to Socrates critique of uncredentialed democracy. Who ought choose the captain of a ship, everybody including those who've never sailed, or experienced sailors? I think this is mostly self evident to the point of being rhetorical.
In times before the internet people were less inclined to form an opinion on every single issue and so, in practice, we ended up with the self evident choice. But as that has changed, we're now having the butcher vote for Richius as captain because of an opinion he heard from the Town Crier. That crier just happens to be best friends with the son of of one particularly influential Senator. That son's never once sailed in his life, though he thinks 'it sounds like a lot of fun!' Of course that son's name - Richius.
Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Ivanpah Solar Power Facility Blew my mind when I drove past that (on the way to Las Vegas?). I swear it appeared as though the air was incandescing at the top of the tower where all the sun's rays were focused. Def something out of a Sci-Fi film....
You truly don’t understand how blinding it is until you drive past it. I didn’t realize it was in San Bernardino. I saw it driving from Las Vegas to SF. Remember it being near Zzyzx which reminded me of Sonic Youth music video.
Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Deserts are often teeming with life. The term refers to rainfall, not population. There are plants and animals equally deserving of protection, and it is worth protecting for the same reason any other biome is. If you look for beauty and balance there you might find it. Covering them with solar panels disrupts the environment and displaces it’s inhabitants. https://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/deserts
> and it is worth protecting for the same reason any other biome is. Other biomes are worth preserving as they keep this planet habitable. I thought deserts do quite the opposite. https://www.environmentalscience.org/deserts-ecosystems > Even though the plant and animal species that exist in hot deserts are well-adapted to those environments, we know from studies that such organisms are treading a fine line over envi…
Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#109Will they accept nuclear reactors though? If you're going to ban these, then offer a non-fossil-fuel alternative that could work.
Their only remaining nuclear generation station is being closed down early because people in California don't like it regardless of its reliable carbon-free energy [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Canyon_Power_Plant#Clos...
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ocean/c...
These days you can buy a lot of solar, wind, and storage for $2.6B, so I'm not sure that closing the reactor is merely "not liking" nuclear. At this point we get more carbon free energy from solar and storage for the same amount of money, so if one is concerned about carbon it makes more sense to chug it down and build newer cheaper infrastructure.
Re: California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar, wind farms
#110> “These vast open areas are precious for their natural, historical and recreational qualities. But they are fragile, and no amount of mitigation can counter the damage that industrial-scale renewable energy projects would cause,” Fairchild told the supervisors. “Once destroyed, these landscapes can never be brought back.” Because climate change won't destroy precious fragile landscapes? Okay, here's my deal: you get…