The last item on tomorrow’s 64-item Board of Supervisor’s agenda looks to be the final showdown in the protracted battle between energy behemoth Nextera, and Morongo Basin environmental groups. Assignment reporter Mike Lipsitz has details …
At tomorrow’s 10 a.m. meeting of the County Board of Supervisors in San Bernardino, the board is expected to convene a public hearing on multiple appeals to the County Planning Commission’s approval of an industrial-scale solar facility planned at the site of the former Joshua Tree airport. Those opposed to the project point to numerous environmental impacts, risk to local tourist-driven economies, quality-of-life concerns, inaccuracies in its environmental impact statements, and lack of compliance with the county’s own solar ordinance. On the other side, Joshua Tree Solar Farm, a subsidiary of the $17.5 billion NextEra Energy, has demonstrated extraordinary resolve to see this project through, including efforts widely viewed as threats and bribes in order to secure a water supply agreement; (as yet, no water supply agreement has been granted). Testimony for or against the 110-acre solar facility may be made in person at the County Government Center in San Bernardino, or via live video link from the first floor teleconferencing room in the County Government Center on White Feather Road in Joshua Tree.
