DesertBlog

Wind Energy Expansion in Eastern San Diego

In a surprise move, the Bureau of Land Management has proposed an increase in acreage where wind energy development would be allowed in Eastern San Diego under its Proposed Eastern San Diego Resource Management Plan. The old version of the plan already allowed increased wind energy development on about 6,000 acres of land, by reclassifying it from “beautiful” to “ugly” (using the bureaucratic terms VRM Class II and IV). Due to protests by the wind energy industry, and the current climate of “build renewables anywhere no matter what they destroy,” the BLM has now decided that this was not enough additional acreage for wind development. The agency will now allow just about any type of development in lands in eastern San Diego it still considers “beautiful.” The changes will make “an additional 27,327 acres available for renewable energy in the planning area.” The lifted restrictions also allow an additional 27,000 acres for mining and 31,000 acres for vaguely described “land use authorizations.”

The additional lands now subject to wind energy development include many acres bordering Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, notably the Chariot Canyon and Oriflamme Mountain areas. The Pacific Crest Trail also views or traverses many of these areas.

The one ray of hope is that Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern have been excluded from the expansion. But with the current thinking among many who call themselves environmentalists – that global warming is the only environmental threat worth considering — can it be long before these areas too are called upon to produce renewable energy? And with some “greens” denying that “mere scenery” has any value at all, can long-dead proposals such as damming the Grand Canyon for hyrdoelectric power be far from revival? When environmentalists team up with industry, is any place safe from development?

These are dark times indeed for public lands advocates.

Read the Bureau of Land Management notice here.