[DesertNeighbors] Feinstein's Monument gets Senate Committee hearing Thursday

[magicgroove]

Senator Feinstein's Mojave Trails Monument bill gets a hearing in the
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Thursday, May 20,
at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. In case you've forgotten, this bill will
implicitly lay out the deal for the Base expansion (still pending
environmental review, of course). The hearing will be LIVE WEBCAST.
Details below, followed by an article from the Press-Enterprise.

http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=6eec2049-007d-6557-f352-960d992d8cc1

FULL COMMITTEE HEARING: to receive testimony on S. 2921, to provide
for the conservation, enhanced recreation opportunities, and
development of renewable energy in the California Desert Conservation
Area, to require the Secretary of the Interior to designate certain
offices to serve as Renewable Energy Coordination Offices for
coordination of Federal permits for renewable energy projects and
transmission lines to integrate renewable energy development, and for
other purposes (Hearing Room SD-366).
Thursday, May 20, 2010
09:30 AM
Energy Committee Hearing Room - SD-366

The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on S. 2921, to
provide for the conservation, enhanced recreation opportunities, and
development of renewable energy in the California Desert Conservation
Area, to require the Secretary of the Interior to designate certain
offices to serve as Renewable Energy Coordination Offices for
coordination of Federal permits for renewable energy projects and
transmission lines to integrate renewable energy development, and for
other purposes (Hearing Room SD-366).

Witnesses:

Panel 1
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein , US Senator

Panel 2
Mr. Robert V. Abbey , Director, Bureau of Land Management, Department
of the Interior
Dr. Dorothy Robyn , Department of Defense
Faye Krueger , Acting Associate Deputy Chief, NFS, Department of
Agriculture

Panel 3
Mr. David Myers , The Wildlands Conservancy
Mr. Harry Baker , California Association of4WD Clubs, Inc.
Mr. Pedro Pizarro , Power Operations at Southern California Edison
Mr. V. John White , Executive Director, Center for Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Technologies
Mr. David Hubbard , EcoLogic Partners, Inc.
Ms. Johanna Wald , Natural Resources Defense Council



ARTICLE IN THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE:

http://www.pe.com/localnews/politics/stories/PE_News_Local_D_land20.9652439.html

Can the unlikely coalition of support for Feinstein's land bill hold
together?

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 19, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau


A congressional hearing today in Washington marks the first formal
step forward for Sen. Dianne Feinstein's bill to protect more than a
million acres of desert land in Southern California.

But quietly and effectively, Feinstein, D-Calif., has spent the past
year working behind the scenes to build support for the plan among
recreation groups, the energy industry, off-roaders, local
governments, the military and others with competing interests in the
land.

Concerns remain about the legislation's effects, particularly on
burgeoning renewable energy industries that would be prohibited from
developing the land. This morning's hearing before the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee is likely to shed light both on the
level of lingering opposition among groups with a stake in the land,
and how that opposition might play out in Congress.

Whatever obstacles lay ahead, proponents of the plan say Feinstein's
painstaking efforts to build support have pre-empted much of the
likely opposition.

"She's approached every party, and she has an idea of what they want
and what she can give to them," said Elden Hughes, a longtime desert
environmentalist whose input helped shape the legislation. "It's
negotiation. And she's a master."

The proposed legislation would establish a pair of national monuments
totaling more than a million acres, including the 941,000-acre Mojave
Trails National Monument that stretch along Route 66 south of the
Mojave National Preserve.

It is meant to build on the Desert Protection Act of 1994, also
championed by Feinstein, which created the Mojave National Preserve
and increased federal protections on millions of acres.

Green Gold rush

California's 2006 mandate to generate a third of the state's power
through renewable energy by 2020 sparked a gold rush of sorts for land
in the California desert. Drawn by the open spaces, year-round
sunshine and reliable breezes, scores of solar and wind energy outfits
submitted applications to use public land to produce power.

Some filed applications to build their projects on former railroad
land given to the federal government during the Clinton administration
with the understanding that the property would be protected
permanently. The scattered rectangles of railroad land, 600,000 acres
in all, had been purchased with private donations raised by area
environmentalists and with federal funds.

The Wildlands Conservancy, an Oak Glen-based group, raised $40 million
to buy and donate the acreage. Members were outraged when they got
wind that the Bush administration was accepting applications for
energy development on the land.

"It's a horrendous breach of faith," said the group's executive
director, David Myers, who warned there would be ramifications if the
land were developed. "It goes right to the core of whether there will
be (future) philanthropic giving of land to the government."

Because of Feinstein's involvement with the 1994 legislation, her
office was a natural place to go for help. Myers showed her drawings
of what large solar and wind developments might look like in the
otherwise pristine areas, Feinstein recalled.

"Here I was, the author of the Desert Protection Act, and I didn't
know these people were going into these places," she said. "It was
very personal."

Resolved to keep the promises made to the land donors, Feinstein once
again set out to craft a desert protection bill. Unlike the 1994
version, which took more than a decade to enact, she hopes to pass
this one by the end of this year. She said her strategy to enlist
support from various and often opposing interests was based on her
experience in the 1990s.

She described the process as going from "county supervisor to county
supervisor ... person-by-person, month after month after month."

Her office provided a list of more than 70 groups, chambers of
commerce, cities, elected officials and community leaders who have
formally backed the plan. Several said Feinstein or her staff visited
them in person to listen to concerns and ask for support.

Among the groups supporting the plan, though conditionally, is the
American Motorcyclist Association, one of the leading opponents of the
earlier desert protection bill. Association spokesman Pete terHorst
attributed the group's support, in part, to Feinstein's willingness to
listen.

"It's unusual for what we call 'anti-access forces' to seek common
ground on (land conservation) legislation," he said.

The biggest hurdle facing Feinstein and other proponents of the
legislation was what to do about several renewable energy firms with
pending applications inside the proposed monuments.

Negotiations and numerous boundary changes resulted in a drastic
downsizing of the larger monument, from more than 2.5 million acres to
less than 1 million, to allow for energy projects.

Still, Feinstein's staff acknowledged that some energy developments,
proposed deep within the Mojave Trails footprint, could not move
forward under the plan.

Those projects, now halted and largely abandoned, could have supplied
as much as 9,500 megawatts of solar power -- more than a 10th of the
state's overall power needs, according to Shannon Eddy, executive
director of the Large Scale Solar Association. The industry represents
many of the firms that filed applications for the area inside and
surrounding the proposed monument.

"I think what's been most disappointing from the industry's
perspective is that the projects have essentially been ruled out based
on the monument boundary, and not based on any kind of scientific
information," she said. "It was simply a line drawn on a map."

While the group has taken no formal position on the bill, Eddy said
the monument plan has thrown a wrench in the push for increased solar
power.

"The fact that the monument is taking a million acres off the table is
not helpful," she said.

Eddy said the legislation has created uncertainty in the industry,
which has led to funding problems for solar projects in the pipeline.
Feinstein disputed the assertion, pointing to provisions of the bill
meant to overhaul a broken permitting system and ease the way for
solar production in the desert.

Under the bill, federal agencies would be required to identify zones
within their jurisdiction where renewable energy production is in the
public good. Ultimately, those firms displaced by the monument would
get first crack at developing projects in those areas.

While that may help, "it by no means makes the companies that lost
their projects whole," Eddy said.

a fragile balance

Feinstein said the bill to be taken up today is also the product of
"careful negotiations" with the military, which has long hoped to
expand its desert training grounds in places affected by the bill, and
off-road vehicle groups who frequent the area.

Those groups, as well as government officials and energy advocates,
are scheduled to appear at the hearing. While some are expected to
testify against the plan, Feinstein will present the Senate committee
with endorsements from a wide array of groups.

That support could weaken, however, because the bill could change as
it must make its way through the committee, the full Senate and then
the House of Representatives before President Barack Obama could sign
it into law.

The Motorcyclist Association, for example, is threatening to pull its
support if a provision to create four permanent off-road areas is
weakened or dropped. Similarly, Hesperia Mayor Thurston "Smitty"
Smith, whose town relies on revenue from desert recreation, said his
endorsement depends on those areas remaining in the bill.

"It all depends on how it changes coming out of those committees in
D.C.," he said.

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