Skip to main content

Ninth Circuit Lets Ivanpah Solar Work Continue

Support Provided By
Ivanpah-SEGS-BLM-PEIS-7-24-12-thumb-600x436-32918

Ivanpah SEGS: still go for now. | Photo: Don Barrett/Flickr/Creative Commons License

A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to approve a preliminary injunction halting work on the 370-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) based on the project's potential harm to wildlife.

The panel of judges made the ruling Friday denying a request from plaintiff group Western Watersheds, which is suing the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approving the project without ensuring the site's wildlife and groundwater resources were adequately protected.

Michael J. Connor, California Director of Western Watersheds, told ReWire that his group is still awaiting a Ninth Circuit ruling on the merits of the lawsuit; last week's ruling by Judge Dolly Gee involved an appeal of a lower court's denial of the preliminary injunction his group wanted to halt construction. According to Connor, the court also denied a motion by ISEGS developer BrightSource to dismiss the case.

The 370-megawatt concentrating solar project, which reached its construction halfway point last week, is being built by Oakland-based BrightSource in collaboration with NRG Energy and Google in the Ivanpah Valley, a Mojave Desert valley astride the California-Nevada line south of Las Vegas. The project has attracted controversy due to the quality of the wildlife habitat the project displaces (watch this segment from KCET's "SoCal Connected" to catch up). When construction commenced in 2011 BrightSource found far more tortoises than their consulting biologist had predicted, forcing the Fish and Wildlife Service to rewrite its scientific assessment of the tortoises on the site so that construction could continue.

According to compliance documents BrightSource filed with the California Energy Commission (CEC) a 2.5" juvenile tortoise was found on the project's Unit One as late as June: that portion of the project had theoretically been completely cleared of tortoises for months. More than fifty tortoises are being held in pens on the site; BrightSource employees are deploying ant baits in the pens after fire ants injured a number of captive tortoises in 2011. BrightSource's June CEC compliance documents state that three of the juvenile tortoises in the holding pens have gone missing.

ReWire is dedicated to covering renewable energy in California. Keep in touch by liking us on Facebook, and help shape our editorial direction by taking this quick survey here.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.