The January 12 meeting of the Morongo Basin Municipal Advisory Commission was again dominated by solar development issues. Reporter Dan Stork says that mental health services, roads, and a 5-letter word also figured in discussions…
In the opening presentation at the Morongo Basin MAC January meeting, Susan Petro described the Crisis Walk-In Center (CWIC) in Yucca Valley, operated by the Telecare Corporation. The CWIC is a 24/7/365 program intended to help people avoid the need for emergency psychiatric services and unnecessary contacts with law enforcement. (See http://www.telecarecorp.com/programs/152 for more information.)
Then David Miller of the California Desert Coalition showed a video he had created that promotes the advantages of distributed, rooftop solar over utility-scale solar. It cites the achievements of the city of Lancaster and Sonoma County, repeats statements by the head of the Ivanpah solar concentrator to shareholders about the shortcomings of utility-scale solar, and was optimistic about the future of battery storage. Pat Flanagan described an effort to get rooftop solar promotion into the discussion of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). Marina West reported that a community appeal against the SPower solar project in Landers was accepted by the County, and that projected has been at least temporarily red-tagged.
Almut Fleck showed samples of road stabilization material that have been destroyed by over-grading in Wonder Valley.
Southern California Edison representative Jennifer Cusack described infrastructure upgrades that the company is making.
Bob Karmann asked for help in coming up with definitions for “rural” that don’t dwell on living deficiencies.
