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OBITUARIES
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NO OBITUARY NOTICES
WERE PUBLISHED IN
THIS WEEK'S EDITION
OBITUARIES FROM THE
JULY 15TH ISSUE
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03-04-2010 Concerns Voiced on Public Land Solar Projects in LC
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Concerns Voiced on Public Land Solar Projects in LC
By Dave Maxwell
Captain Ryan Price, Nellis Air
Force Base, sharing Air Force
concerns
Photo by Dave Maxwell
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Another piece of possible legislation proposed to the County Commission by Senator Reid’s office, along with the National Conservation Area in Garden and Coal Valley, has to do with the designation of solar areas in Dry Lake Valley and the lower Delamar Valley.
Lincoln County Commission Chairman Paul Mathews gave a brief background at the meeting March 1, regarding the issue and said several months ago BLM started the process of wanting to identify potential solar areas, and designated acreage for a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).
Mathews said when the plan first came out, ranchers and others who would be affected by lost grazing acreage and multiple use status in particular areas, expressed their concerns to the BLM. However, Mathews noted, BLM eventually disregarded all of the concerns brought forth and decided to study the whole proposed area anyway.
Learning of this, a consultant to Senator Reid’s office, Ty Anderson, worked with BLM and the Counties, trying to decide what to do.
Mathews noted a plan was developed to create solar areas, “that were a lot smaller and more defined, and with willing participants, than what the BLM was trying to do with the entire PEIS.” He added, “What they want to do is legislate these defined areas to basically be solar parks. In their thinking, came up with several reasons. One is that a lot of the interested companies are 30, 60, 100 megawatt kind of companies, and how are you going to get them on a transmission line if they are spread out all through that valley? The economic practicality of making the solar thing work was getting scattered out and wasn’t working, so they wanted to consolidate that.”
A second reason Mathews noted, “was to give the ranchers a little more peace of mind, and confine permit applications to certain designated areas.”
Yet a third reason given, Mathews said, was “They tried to tie in some dollar amounts to try and make it more attractive for the County, for us, to support them in this action.” His said the dollar amount tied in is about 25 percent of the royalties and lease payment, BLM would receive.”
However, Commissioner Ed Higbee pointed out language in the legislation also allows the Secretary of the Interior flexibility to basically postpone royalty payments for a period of five years to try to entice companies into the area, and help operations get up and running. Mathews said the royalty rates could be set from zero to the full 25 percent.
In questioning this clause in the legislation, Mathews said it was explained to him the solar areas in Lincoln County are really “second tier solar areas.” There are better areas farther to the south, i.e., Arizona and southern California, and as such, we might need to have an advantage like that to attract companies,” he said.
Commissioner Hornbeck said the legislation is calling for 2,850 acres in lower Delamar and 10,980 acres in Dry Lake Valley. Those are considerably smaller than what had been originally proposed
She said the two proposed areas have been discussed in numerous public comment meetings held and working with ranchers that will be impacted. “Those in the Ely Springs allotment of Dry Lake Valley were OK with it,” she said, “and other ranchers, above and below the Ely Springs allotment, were having a hard time with it.”
Mathews disclosed that his family does run cattle on a section of the Ely Springs allotment, owned by Vidler Water, but they would support what the landowner wanted to do.
In the lower Delamar Valley area of 10,980 acres, Hornbeck said BLM would “attach a requirement to the lease that the holder diligently develop leased parcels.” She said there needs to be something worked out that if those properties are not used for the intended lease, then those leases would be given up.”
She also felt the County did have, “our homework cut up for us to understand what the lease rates would be, what the royalty rates are going to be, so that we don’t walk into anything blind.”
Connie Simkins, representing the N4 Grazing Board, said they also want to be included in the discussions, “to be involved in the process every step of the way. And to have the ability to hire scientific experts to give input when these plans of development are brought forward by either the solar developers or any renewable energy project.”
A representative of Nellis Air Force Base, Captain Ryan Price, of the 99th Air Base Wing Command of the Nevada Test and Training Range, said the Air Force is concerned about the possibility of having solar developments taking place in their flight paths.
Price said there is a lot that is unknown yet as to “what even potential threats solar areas would pose to our mission.”
In a recent meeting with the Air Force Advisory Board, Price said the Board wanted studies to be conducted on the effects of glare from the solar mirrors, how the heat would affect aircraft overhead, and what would be the impacts of sonic booms on the solar panels.
“From the Air Force perspective, Captain Price said, “we encourage the Commission to step forward cautiously. We are very concerned that any type of renewable energy could have a negative impact because there are some unknowns we are looking at.”
He questioned, what happens if a sonic boom should crack the panels and the grid goes down?
He thought the Air Force Advisory Board will have their studies completed by May, and, “in June we will be able to return and provide a better analysis and opinion of these specific areas.”
Asked why the Air Force can’t simply choose to not fly over the solar areas, Captain Price said the Test Range already has some areas where they do not fly because of noise restrictions, “and we are trying to avoid a kind of Swiss cheese look to the range. With the speed of modern supersonic planes, the air space we have is very valuable, and when you have a whole bunch of “bubbles,” these air craft having to weave and bob in and out at supersonic speeds, it’s not really a good idea, especially if there is a 500-foot solar tower in the way.”
He added, “Our desire is to not see more of these things pop up, but to have the technology move closer to where there is already some type of noise restrictions. That’s the best.” He mentioned the Rachel area as possibly a good location.
Alamo resident Vaughn Higbee said he felt a compensation and mitigation formula should be developed in advance of solar developments, because of potential loses to ranchers of Animal Unit Months (AUMs) and loss of abilities to maintain their ranching operations, “so that everyone going into this understands what the cost really is, because it is going to have an impact on ranching whether we restrict it the best we can, and restrictions on many other areas of wildlife.”
A public hearing for comments on this matter, as well as the proposed National Conservation Area in Garden and Coal Valley, is set for March 10 at 3 pm at the Alamo Ambulance Barn.
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