drecpLetter to the Editor: The DRECP

  The DRECP,  also known as the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan is an attempt by multi Governmental Agencies to manage and plan for Industrial Scale Renewable Energy Projects in
                                                        http://www.drecp.org/
22.5 million acres of California Desert Lands in 7 California Counties, Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and our own Inyo County.    The Agencies involved include the  California Energy Commission (CEC) , the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the US Fish and Wildlife and  California Fish and Wildlife. The Plan, after a 2 year delay due to the great scope of the work,  is now available for public input. There are a series of public meetings in all the Counties effected  . Mark your calendar , Inyo County is scheduled for October 27 at Statham Hall in Lone Pine  4-6:30pm.       http://www.drecp.org/calendar/index.php?eID=574
   “The DRECP will result in an efficient and effective biological mitigation and conservation program providing renewable energy developers with permit timing, cost certainty under the Federal and California Endangered Species Acts while at the same time preserving , restoring and enhancing  natural communities and related ecosystems.”
This stated introduction at the DRECP website does little to prepare anyone, even the experts,  for the 6,000 plus pages of a haul of incomprehensible language .  Chris Clarke,  noted KCET author/journalist has offered this insight to the DRECP process.
As an individual who has limited knowledge and abilities in the natural world and the bio sciences and who is confounded by this Proposal and these Plans to which Mr. and Ms. Science have given the good house keeping seal of approval ,  this story by Mr. Clarke and KCET is most revealing. The component, for this writer, that is most objectionable to this DRECP process is the fast track, streamlined  proposal process in which the developers do not consider the unique local bio communities, the unique plants and animals and humans that exist within the locales the DRECP wishes to designate.
The organization of the DRECP proposal  is not organized geographically. Pulling out the issues of Inyo County is difficult with all the “Alternative Proposals” considered. If they had done this purposefully they could not have restricted public input more.  The current local public input and most important the current process of CEQA  has allowed a better and more responsible view of each and every project proposal with the locale as an important consideration.  Individuals like myself, who are stymied to discuss in Bio speak, to submit appropriate science, yet might wax and shine philosophically about the need and preservation for open space, but we have little voice in this process.  We are in direct conflict with a mismanaged,  economic chicanery,  of double,  triple speak  and political confluence of serving the environment. Well nothing passes here for truth, for the best solutions with regard to the environs , the component of altruism and justice  are forgotten and lost for all who hold hope for this earth, and all are being steamrolled and hoodwinked into the desert sands in our California.                                Philip Anaya

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