Posted without comment from the Ivanpah Valley, a memo sent Friday by Sierra Club national to the Club’s activists. Forwarded to me by a dozen of said activists.
Memo on Ivanpah from Robin Mann and Michael Brune
No one said that clean energy would be easy.
After much deliberation, the Board of Directors made a difficult decision this week not to try to block BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar project in the Mojave Desert.
Club volunteers and staff have worked tirelessly to reconfigure Ivanpah in a way that would do the least harm to the desert tortoise and the surrounding ecosystem. Unfortunately Brightsource is moving forward with a plan that causes unnecessary harm to species.
The Board of Directors has decided not to pursue litigation at this time. This battle has already been costly, and we must now rely on the federal agencies to require that Brightsource come around, so that we can focus our resources and attention to making sure that future large-scale renewable energy projects are built in a more responsible manner. We will continue to work with the Interior Department and Brightsource to improve the project in any way we can.
The Sierra Club remains deeply committed to moving America off of dirty energy quickly and responsibly, and that will include building large-scale renewable energy projects in the smartest way possible — by eliminating or minimizing harm to wildlife and natural resources.
Because the Sierra Club has a long history of protecting wildlife and public lands, as well as a record of winning fights against dirty energy, we are in a unique position to make sure clean energy projects are built responsibly. We are also in a tough position; we urgently need to get clean energy up to scale, and that means we will face more difficult decisions about where to put large renewable projects.
There are solutions to this conflict. As we showed with our proposed reconfiguration of Ivanpah, there is a way to balance clean energy development with the protection of our wildlife and natural resources.
We thank all of the volunteers and staff members who have dedicated years — and tears — to the Ivanpah fight. There will be more battles ahead, and we hope we can count on you to lead us to clean energy solutions.
The Ivanpah project has received occasional media attention over the past few months and will likely receive more. You can find our approved talking points in Clubhouse.
But please note that we are the only official Club spokespeople on this issue, along with Clean Energy Solutions Senior Representative Barb Boyle. Please direct any inquiries you may receive to Senior Press Secretary Kristina Johnson at (415) 977-5619.
Onward,
Robin Mann, Sierra Club President
Michael Brune, Sierra Club Executive Director
Translation: Like Congress with have given in to corporate interests. They have more money than all of you ordinary citizens.
Approved talking points; are you kidding me!!!
“the typical purpose of a talking point is to propagandize, specifically using the technique of argumentum ad nauseam, i.e. continuous repetition within media outlets until accepted as fact.”
Heartbreaking….....!
I’m so sorry, Chris. That must hurt. I wish they thought like you.
No, Mr. Brune and Ms. Mann, we never thought clean energy would be easy ... just clean.
First Glen Canyon, now Ivanpah.
SC, miss another easy one and you’re out.
My humble opinion and speaking only for me, don’t give them another dime and tell
‘em where they can stick their talking points.
To answer the next question, you damn right it’s personal.
Humans are at our very, very worst when we’re in Rationalization Mode.
This is unutterably sad.
Why is it always the Western environments that seem to get the short end of the stick? Such irony, given the organization’s origins.
This makes me so sad. I hope,the petition helps. This destruction of the desert and all it contains is just horrible. This could have been done in a much better way. I just hope we can protect the beautiful desert Tortoise.
Celia
Celia
This is bigger than Sierra Club. This is the perversion of something good, called solar energy. The desert is not a place where can be allowed, and that is what this is, development.
Solar Panels belong on our rooftops. No endangered species or endangered habitat up there. With electric cars to drive (www.EV1.org) and rooftop solar power, all this will stop. So will war, warming and Gulf-type Oil spills.
Obama and the corrupt democrats (read: Republicans= management, democrats = labor) are completely beholden to corporations, particularly the extraction industries. Obama and Swarzenegger are pushing for this green jobs nonsense. No energy is green that yanks tortoises from their holes and then grades in the desert.
They have already found there to be far more tortoises on site than first thought. And here come another round of permits and projects and precedents against our precious environmental regulations. These projects can be stopped by a concerted effort to demand electric cars and rooftop solar power.
Joey Racano
www.earthsourcemedia.com
805 540-8970
www.drivingthefuture.com