Isra-Mart srl:Further legal threat to California's solar ambitions

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Isra-Mart srl news:

The US government is facing another lawsuit over its decision to grant approval to a large solar farm in California, the latest in a series of legal challenges to renewable energy projects filed by conservation groups.

Non-profit group the Western Watersheds Project (WWP) filed a complaint on Friday alleging that approval for Brightsource Energy's 370MW Ivanpah solar energy plant in California was rubberstamped without sufficient environmental reviews and calling for the decision to over-turned.

"In an ill-conceived rush to accommodate massive renewable energy project ... the federal defendants precipitously approved unnecessarily destructive energy development of the California Desert Conservation Area without first conducting adequate environmental reviews," the complaint read.

WWP is particularly concerned the process failed to take into consideration potential impacts on the desert tortoise, a threatened species under federal law that has previously complicated solar plans and led to a number of projects being scaled back, as well as migratory birds, desert bighorn sheep, groundwater resources and rare plants.

The heads of US Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, the bodies themselves and certain other employees were all named as defendants in the suit, news agency Reuters reported yesterday.

Last year, Brightsource agreed to purchase thousands of acres of desert to be used as a protected habitat for rare species in a deal with environmental group The Center for Biological Diversity - but the move has failed to appease WWP.

The conservation group is by no means the first to challenge planning approvals for US solar plants.

Last month, a Native American group accused the US Department of the Interior (DoI) of failing to engage in proper consultations over six projects, including Ivanpah, the 7,000 acre Blythe project, and the 4,600 acre Calico project, which it said could desecrate sacred sites.