California crews have begun cutting down the region's iconic Joshua trees to build solar farms — watts?

from legal riots

by Leslie Eastman

Back in 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a bill to give the state’s iconic West Joshua trees “protected” status.

The West Joshua Tree Conservation Act comes after the California Fish and Game Commission failed to act on a petition filed more than three years ago to have the California desert biomarker listed under the California Endangered Species Act. 》Threatened species.

“Compromise is always painful,” said Brendan Cummings, conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity and one of the petition's authors. “But at the end of the day, I would be happy if this bill passed.”

The Newsom administration's intervention reflects a precarious reality: Opponents of the petition warned that listing West Joshua Tree could undermine private property improvements and renewable energy projects designed to help California ’s climate change goal is to completely transition the state’s electricity system away from fossil fuels by 2045.

However, in 2020, Avantus, the developer behind the plan, received a waiver from the Newsom Fish and Game Commission to remove the trees. Arguably, the 2023 measures mask the reality of what is happening in the state right now.

As I pointed out in a previous article, climate fanatics insist that they need to cut down Joshua trees to save them from the carbon dioxide the plants actually need. In a pointless pursuit of a renewable energy utopia, a solar company has received permission to proceed with construction of the Aladina Solar Center, despite the deep concerns and objections of local residents.

Despite comments and concerns from Boron and Desert Lake residents, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a solar farm project that will include five different sites in the eastern Kern County area; the board spoke in Bakersfield on Oct. 12 The decision was approved by vote at a meeting held.

It appears that large green energy projects cannot get off the ground without outcry from nearby residents, whose communities are being profoundly affected with little real results in terms of sustainable or reliable energy.

Work began this week on felling 3,500 of the 4,700 Joshua trees at the solar farm.

A 2020 survey showed there were 4,700 trees on the project site. Since then, however, the project has been scaled back.

Residents said hundreds of Joshua trees appeared to have been destroyed last week, but in some parts of the site the trees were still standing. Neither the company nor the government agency disclosed how many trees were cut down. Developer Avantus said the number of trees destroyed would be fewer than approved by the government.

Heavy equipment has not yet begun leveling the land where the trees were cut in preparation for the installation of solar panels.

Residents fear the earthworks will increase the threat of valley fever, a fungal respiratory infection spread through dust. A local group discovered the fungus that causes valley fever in topsoil samples from five plots around town where solar panels will be built.

Residents are continuing to fight, launching a petition calling for an end to further destruction of Joshua trees.

A petition against the scheme was launched earlier this summer and now has more than 52,000 signatures.

“The ancient Joshua trees are going extinct and we must save them.” The petition reads: “The Alatina Solar Project in Boren, California has been approved to destroy nearly 4,000 ancient Joshua trees in this forest…these The iconic trees have stood for centuries, providing habitat for numerous species and contributing to our region's unique biodiversity.

If California politicians were serious about reliable and affordable energy and protecting Joshua Tree, they would develop plans to build fourth-generation nuclear reactors.

Instead, we will spend decades recovering from the environmental damage caused by climate cult pseudoscience.