Last night’s marathon three-hour meeting of the Joshua Basin Water District saw the little water agency squirming to get out from under the pressure being applied by energy behemoth NextEra Inc. Reporter Mike Lipsitz was at last night’s meeting and files this report…
With annual revenue well in excess of $17 billion, NextEra, aka Joshua Tree Solar, is accustomed to getting what it wants. But in actions that can only be described as fearless, directors at Joshua Basin Water District have thus far evaded NextEra’s attempted bribes, threats and ultimatums. What NextEra wants is the district’s commitment to provide all the water it would need to plop down an industrial scale solar plant on the site of the old Joshua Tree Airport. NextEra wants it badly and they want it quickly, so last night’s board decision to table the matter for a month or two is likely to make the big business bully bite back and make good on its threat to drill their own high production well. In its defense, the district finds itself trying to manage mandatory water reductions imposed by the Water Resources Control Board, renewable energy development incentives from Washington, and conflicting county policies.
Z107.7 News will cover last night’s other board actions in tomorrow’s part two of this story.
JOSHUA BASIN WATER PART 1: SQUIRMING UNDER PRESSURE
