The Bureau of Land management approved the Eagle Crest Energy Company’s 1,300-megawatt hydropower project Wednesday. The BLM announced it would allow the controversial hydropower plant to be built just one-and-a-half miles outside the border of Joshua Tree National Park. Developers say the $2.5-billion “pumped storage” project could store excess electricity generated by solar and wind farms, allowing that clean energy to power California after dark, or during times when the wind isn’t blowing. Environmentalists say the project would drain the surrounding desert aquifer harming rare and endangered species. Eagle Crest Energy has not yet found a buyer for its generated electricity. Republican Congressman Paul Cook of Yucca Valley (whose district does not include the site of the Eagle Crest Project) and Democrat State Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia of Coachella both support the project.
