Caribou Gear

22 million BLM acres for development?

“Clean” energy has wrecked a lot of land. Let the private landowners do it. Come take a look at the wind farm north of Miles City and ask yourself if that is the future that we want to look to. Shame on the landowners that allowed that to happen. Solar I suspect would even be worse.
 
Landing at Sky Harbor the other day, I was struck by the hundreds of acres of warehouse rooftops with literally no solar. I know nothing about the topic, so can someone explain to me why we don’t invest more in rooftop solar?
Cost is the short answer. It takes more steel and engineering for a lesser return (smaller footprint) compared to 40, 80, 500, 1xxx acres.
 
Landing at Sky Harbor the other day, I was struck by the hundreds of acres of warehouse rooftops with literally no solar. I know nothing about the topic, so can someone explain to me why we don’t invest more in rooftop solar?
Only California is foolish enough to pay the high cost of solar electricity, and they are finally starting to figure out that it is a bad idea.

 
Cost is the short answer. It takes more steel and engineering for a lesser return (smaller footprint) compared to 40, 80, 500, 1xxx acres.

And the BLM doesn't control any of that real estate.

If developers were to tackle this, it would require subsidies and grants for new developments as well as extend and expand current programs to hasten the transition. Currently, the only thing stopping developers from adding solar options is reduced profitability of the development by a small percentage. History has shown us that industry rarely rises to the challenge without massive gov't intervention.

There are parts of this plan are troubling. Stacking more development on public lands is always problematic, but the agency is looking at siting that help mitigate new infrastructure (roads, transmission lines, etc) that have cascading effects on wildlife populations. Developing within the existing developed footprint is ok-ish I guess.

I'd much rather see urban development rather than on public lands, but these are also good paying jobs that help transition energy workers w/o a loss of income or lifestyle.
 
I think you read this article and just came to the conclusion you had before you opened it.
Actually, I didn't read the article cause it had a paywall. Glad you read it though. I did read this one that didn't have a paywall from pro solar journalists.

"The commission said it altered the rates because paying solar panel owners near-retail prices allows these mostly wealthy property owners to avoid paying a fair share of maintaining the grid, while saddling everyone else with higher electric bills, including low-income customers."
 
Actually, I didn't read the article cause it had a paywall. Glad you read it though. I did read this one that didn't have a paywall from pro solar journalists.

"The commission said it altered the rates because paying solar panel owners near-retail prices allows these mostly wealthy property owners to avoid paying a fair share of maintaining the grid, while saddling everyone else with higher electric bills, including low-income customers."
Yes, but these articles are literally making the point that distributed solar power (roof top) is cheaper and more efficient than traditional grid power. The problem is the power company can't charge them for grid maintenance expenses (and I will add what the author didn't, the cost of insurance and lawsuits for every time a power line causes a wildfire). In summary, the cost effectiveness of putting a solar panels on your roof in that region is very good (even without the subsidies), unfortunately the high upfront cost can only be borne by those with wealth, thereby transferring the cost of grid maintenance to the poor. But that is the problem with everything in America. Having money has its benefits. I would think this is a good counter argument to developing large scale projects on BLM.

There are some fantastic locations for solar power in this country - every one of em on private land.
Getting access to the grid is a problem for all these renewable companies, regardless of location. In many cases the power companies have no incentive to let them link in, as BHR's article point out. This is all fixed with $$$.
 
It's nice that we'll have a thread on Thursday when BHR is going to get into another 10 page throw down over energy stuff.
"It's nice that we'll have a thread on Thursday when BHR is going to get into another 10 page throw down over energy stuff", refuting information in an article he has not yet read.
 
Imagine if the BLM announced 22 million acres for oil/gas, mining, timber.

There wouldn't be enough craft beer in the country to feed the thirst of the usual suspects and their loud objections.

Are we putting an asterisk on "public land in public hands" now based on team jerseys?
 
And the BLM doesn't control any of that real estate.

If developers were to tackle this, it would require subsidies and grants for new developments as well as extend and expand current programs to hasten the transition. Currently, the only thing stopping developers from adding solar options is reduced profitability of the development by a small percentage. History has shown us that industry rarely rises to the challenge without massive gov't intervention.

There are parts of this plan are troubling. Stacking more development on public lands is always problematic, but the agency is looking at siting that help mitigate new infrastructure (roads, transmission lines, etc) that have cascading effects on wildlife populations. Developing within the existing developed footprint is ok-ish I guess.

I'd much rather see urban development rather than on public lands, but these are also good paying jobs that help transition energy workers w/o a loss of income or lifestyle.
I wonder what miners or oil drillers get paid? I was under tge assumption we didn't care?
 

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