"We're looking at the Owens Valley for our solar. We own it lock, stock and barrel. Some people think we stole it, but LA owns a huge area up there."

http://news.sierrawave.net/eastern-sier ... -in-bishop

Covering the West with acres of windmills and solar panels will be an ecological disaster as bad as hydro electric dams.

All solar facilities should be in high orbit with the electricity broadcast back to earth as engineered by Nicola Tesla over 100 years ago. If we did this we could take down the dams, windmills and power lines. With the right technology we can give earth back to nature And support a large human population.

Clydascope wrote:"We're looking at the Owens Valley for our solar. We own it lock, stock and barrel. Some people think we stole it, but LA owns a huge area up there."

http://news.sierrawave.net/eastern-sier ... -in-bishop

Where did the folks in LA find this character??? WTF is with the accent and hat?!?!?!

This is the deputy mayor of LA and interim GM of the DWP??? Sheesh, what a sad state of affairs.

My heart goes out to the Owens Valley; perhaps it is time to create a Save the Owens Committee?

squishy wrote:

dyusem wrote:perhaps it is time to create a Save the Owens Committee?

100 years to late...

The Owens Valley Committee already exists...

http://www.ovcweb.org/



Then there were the oldtimers...

"A series of escalating confrontations ensued. Farmers illegally diverted water, leaving the canal empty. The City purchased land and water rights indiscriminately, leading to accusations of “checker boarding.” An environment of frustration and uncertainty prevailed. Area farmers felt vulnerable, unsure of the intentions of their neighbors. The growing position of many valley residents was that Los Angeles should buy out the entire area.

On May 21, 1924, the first violence of the dispute erupted. Forty men dynamited the Lone Pine aqueduct spillway gate. No arrests were made. Eventually, the two sides were entirely stalemated."



http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/historyoflaa/index.htm

Gary Schenk wrote:We should be thankful that DWP bought up the water rights to Owens Valley. That alone has protected it from over development.

That is debatable. And not an uncommon sentiment. Me, I don't buy it. I've seen too much in 25 years of living on the Eastside to be a "Friend of DWP.".

What about the major environmental disaster this has created? Or the shady tactics that are still in play? Or the economic stranglehold on the local towns?

Do these results also justify the actions take so many years ago?

I believe that it is true that if the DWP had not purchased all that land you would see condos from Lone Pine to Mammoth all the way. That day may still come.

butitsadryheat wrote:

SpiderSavage wrote:I believe that it is true that if the DWP had not purchased all that land you would see condos from Lone Pine to Mammoth all the way. That day may still come.

If the DWP runs short on cash, I wouldn't doubt it

Very unlikely. Big public sector developers like the DWP will get way more public scrutiny and litigation than private developers owning smaller pieces of land. It is likely that they will only be able to develop isolated, high-end properties, that will mandate lower environmental impact and preservation of the surrounding areas.

Regarding wind and solar power development, I agree with one of the commenters:

The problem with wind and solar is it takes those big old ugly power lines to transport the power to Los Angeles. I doubt the current lines could handle the additional power. It would make more sense to generate the power closer to where it was going to be used.

Mojave/Colorado deserts and Central Valley are better locations for that.

The Tesla idea of beaming power from orbit is science fiction.

Maybe the Owens Valley would have become the green agricultural zone it was about to become before the water wars began,or a National Park, or other similar entity, or a series of healthy communities making decisions on how to use the land that best suited the residents and visitors, or a continuous strip mall 60 mile long, or a stock yard, or private reserve, or a military base.

No one can say with certainty what the Owens Valley would have become.

I think LA was going to take the land whether it was sold to them or not.

That is how it's been for the last 100 years. Not the most enviable history.


Still, I think DWP should be commended for keeping a vast majority of their land open to recreational use. For this I am very grateful and don’t think it should be overlooked.


On the solar front, I say let 'em have the dry lake, it's never going to full again and maybe it will help keep the dust at bay.

The Interior Dept has released 1000 square miles for development of solar. I calculate that land, if totally developed, could replace 3.4% of the US energy consumption.

I'd rather go for conservation, reduced usage. (And as BIADH says, point of use PV -- but I've inquired about that, and with subsidies, it would be 30k for my house.)

The Solar park they're talking about are not Photovoltaic, they're solar-thermal. These do not require as much investment than PV, but they're large industrial-scale facilities occupying a lot of land.

squishy wrote:

gordonye wrote:The Solar park they're talking about are not Photovoltaic, they're solar-thermal. These do not require as much investment than PV, but they're large industrial-scale facilities occupying a lot of land.

Is that like a bunch of mirrors pointing at water then using it to spin turbines?

Something like that.