"And while construction jobs from renewable energy projects are just one part of the green economy, they are a crucial step in developing a work force for the new economy. BrightSource's project comes with the opportunity for veterans and others for training and apprenticeships that will provide skilled workers and craftsmen for home energy refurbishment, Mag-Lev rail construction and other projects that will revitalize the region from the Antelope Valley to Imperial County.
Certainly any development of this scale will raise environmental concerns. The question is how to reduce the project's impact. The Ivanpah project has been undergoing a joint California Energy Commission and Bureau of Land Management review process over the past two years. Ivanpah is the first project ever to go through this stringent level
of state and federal review, providing a transparent, deliberative and thorough environmental permitting process.Working with these agencies and the environmental community, BrightSource has designed a mitigation plan to reduce its environmental impact to habitat found on the Ivanpah site. This includes a low impact technology design that minimizes the need for grading and that enables habitat to co-exist within the facility. It also includes using a more expensive dry-cooling technology, which reduces water use by more than 90 percent. In addition, BrightSource will set aside 12,000 acres of habitat to protect plants and animals of the Mojave Desert.
When constructed, the BrightSource project will produce 440 megawatts of clean, reliable and cost-effective electricity - enough to power more than 150,000 homes - more solar energy than all of the rooftop solar installed in the nation last year, and more than double the amount of solar thermal energy produced in the U.S. today. The project will also reduce carbon emissions by 450,000 tons, equal to taking 75,000 cars off the road and help California reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The clean electricity generated at Ivanpah will be consumed locally by Southern California Edison and PG&E customers.
In a time when our region's unemployment is in excess of 14.2 percent, the Ivanpah project will put our residents back to work in high-road jobs and be an example of how economic development can co-exist with environmental stewardship. The BrightSource Ivanpah project is the right balance for developing jobs, improving California's economy and our nation's environment." (From Linda K. Jones is executive director of the High Desert Region Green Jobs Initiative. Bill Perez is executive secretary of the California Building Trades Council, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. http://www.sbsun.com/pointofview/ci_13854647)
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