Tired of winning yet? Not likely. In a move that will save the American taxpayers a bundle, the Trump administration has canceled an enormous solar power boondoggle that would have swallowed up 63,000 acres of southern Nevada rangeland.
The Trump administration’s cancellation of what would have been one of the world’s largest solar power projects has some industry observers fretting over the future of renewable energy on public lands.
They predicted the Esmeralda 7 project — by far the largest solar project that had moved through the permitting process under former President Joe Biden’s Interior Department — won’t be the last major project in the pipeline to be pulled. It was one of a number of Nevada desert solar projects that had been steadily advancing through regulatory review by the Biden administration.
Scott Sklar, sustainable energy director at George Washington University’s Environment & Energy Management Institute, said the Trump administration had set up a “multitude of regulatory barriers and delays.” These delays, he added, have placed financial strain on the renewable energy companies with projects waiting for review and could lead to others walking away from pending projects.
“The administration wants to stop these projects, period, so there is no chance for approval,” he said.
Solar power industry observers should be fretting. They've been selling the American taxpayers a bill of goods, and the Trump administration isn't having any of it. If these things were commercially viable, the taxpayers wouldn't be on the hook for them. If they were viable from the energy standpoint, the taxpayers wouldn't be on the hook for them. But these industry observers seem concerned that this and other huge solar power boondoggles won't be built without taxpayer subsidies, which really tells us all we need to know.
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It's not just energy realists who are glad to see the Esmerelda 7 project canceled. Environmental groups are likewise glad that this is being shut down.
The Trump administration has made its skepticism of the solar build-out in Nevada clear in recent months, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other officials saying solar is an “intermittent” technology that doesn’t provide reliable energy. But some conservationists alarmed by the proposed rollout of large solar projects in Nevada and other Western states celebrated the demise of Esmeralda 7, saying as designed it took up up (sic) far too much land.
“Friends of Nevada Wilderness is thrilled that this poorly sited project is dead,” said Shaaron Netherton, the group’s executive director.
“In the push to get this particular project through, the BLM ignored the importance of this region’s cultural significance, biological significance and the fact that it is one of the most intact landscapes remaining in Nevada,” Netherton added.
Strange bedfellows, perhaps, but that doesn't make the concerns of the Friends of Nevada Wilderness any less valid. 63,000 acres is a big expanse, and even its use as grazing land for cattle doesn't necessarily make the habitat any less viable for creatures ranging from scorpions and rattlesnakes to pronghorn antelope and deer, all of which can co-exist with grazing cattle. Add to this that solar power remains as it has been: Intermittent, unreliable, low-density, and not commercially viable.
This is the very definition of a win-win for American taxpayers, as well as for the local environmental groups who are concerned with covering up thousands of acres of habitat with big, ugly solar panels. Climate scolds, yes, will be perturbed, but then, they are generally perturbed, and are likely to be more perturbed as the Trump administration keeps right on canceling big, expensive horse squeeze projects.
Nope. Still not tired of winning.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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