LA Times: "Green energy" project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in California desert

Joshua trees are one of the very few trees that can live in deserts.  They're not pretty and don't bear fruit, but environmentalists wailed that because the trees are often 150 or 200 years old, they demanded that the government make it illegal to cut one down.

Ah, but that was before a month ago.  Now--suddenly--both the state of California and the biden regime are *fine* with chopping down "thousands" of these "protected" trees--trees the Dems/greenies demanded you must not cut down under any circumstances.

Whoa, what could have caused this instant, *total* reversal of what until a month ago was a sacred *demand* by the Dems, eh?

If you guessed "to install 3.5 square miles of 'green energy,'" you win.

The LA Times reports that "a" renewable energy company" will soon begin "clearing" thousands of protected Joshua trees to make way for over three square miles of solar energy.

The 2,300-acre project has angered residents of two small towns where the poverty rate is twice the California average.

Hahahahahahahaha!  Do you think anyone in the government gives a shit?  Duh fix beez in, chump.  Duh deplorables who live there aren't "connected," so their concerns are just ignored.  And sure enough...

>>Residents say their concerns about construction dust, as well as the destruction of the mostly pristine land that is habitat for endangered desert tortoises, have been ignored by the county and state officials who approved it.>>

Let's look at just one tiny example of how the LA Times covered for the biden regime while *seeming* to be standing up for the locals: it's that phrase about "[residents'] concerns about  construction dust."

Whiners, eh?  Dust is obviously everywhere.  But in many desert locations the sand harbors a fungus that causes a ghastly, debilitating disease called valley fever.  When the wind--or construction--churns up the soil, the fungus gets into the air and infects people who have this habit of...breathing.

“How are kids going to be able to play outside?” asked one mother who has sons at schools near the site. “So many people from our community were begging them not to approve this project, and they passed it regardless.”

Hahahahahahaha!  This is just SOooo classic!

If the Democrats will happily throw thousands of supposedly "protected" trees under the bus, where do you think poor, unconnected people rank?

The project, called the "Aratina Solar Project," is being developed by Avantus, a California company majority-owned by KKR, the big global private equity firm.

So how long has this been in the works?  Cuz if the Times had wanted to oppose it they would have published this story long enough ahead of the start date so the greenies could have mounted some opposition, eh?  So when is the start date?

Three days after the Times ran the story.

An employee--granted anonymity--said the company decided to shred all the destroyed trees on-site, to hide the number of trees cut down.

Avantus executives would not confirm the June 3 start date, but said that "contractors had begun site preparations this month" and “will soon begin *selectively clearing the area of vegetation.*"  What coverup horseshit.

>>The company said the massive project will have environmental benefits that outweigh the destruction of the Joshua trees and habitat of protected wildlife.

The company's website says
>>“While trees will be *impacted* *during project construction,* vastly more Joshua trees are being threatened by climate change caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, which our  solar project directly addresses.”

<<This is utter, classic horseshit.  First, plants thrive on higher CO2 levels.  Actual greenhouses buy big pressurized cylinders of carbon dioxide and after closing time they close the door and open the valves so the plants grow much better.
   Second: "trees will be *impacted*"?  What a nice, anodyne word for "cut down."  It's like a story about a plane crash in which 198 died, saying the dead were "adversely impacted."
   Now: I don't care one way or the other about this dust-up.  The poor people in the two towns get run over by a huge company--gee, and day ending in Y.  I write this because I find it absolutely hysterical that the Democrat party can so instantly turn on a dime, instantly trashing a formerly sacred policy.  But of course *totally* justfied, cuz savin' duh Erf, eh?
   Really?  I suspect this will bore y'all but...let's take a look at the numbers.  You can easily find that Erf's atmosphere is calculated to contain 3.2 x 10^12 TONS of CO2.

   Now, you could generate the company's 530 megawatts with nuclear for...um, let's see: Oh yeah, zero CO2.  Ooohh, you won't let us doo dat?  Okay, using normal tech you can make 530 MW around the clock, using natural gas, and that'll produce about 1.6 x 10^9 pounds of CO2 a year.  
   Now let's say you do that for 50 years.  That's 80 BILLION pounds of CO2 over life of plant, or 40 million tons.  Wow, eh?  So by building 3.5 square miles of solar cells, to avoid emitting 40 million tons of CO2, by what percentage would duh Erf's CO2 drop by, eh?
   Let's see: 4 x 10^7 divided by 3.2 x 10^12.  That's...um... 1.25 x 10^-5, so a bit over one one-thousandth of one percent.
   Say, do ya suppose any of the vaunted Democrat "officials" did that math, or asked the company for their figures?
   Of course not.  This project is officially "cool," so declared by duh regime.  So all former obstacles vanish, all protected trees trashed.  And possible "valley fever"?  

Hahahahahaha!  That's not even a concern of the regime.

Of an approval meeting by county officials one resident said “It was like the decision had already been made.”

A company executive said the county would get $73 million in property taxes--though what period of time that would be wasn't stated.

The environmental impact statement for the project said nearly 4,700 Joshua trees were found on the site during a survey.  A person with knowledge of the project said the company’s only plans to destroy 3,500 Joshua trees.

Last year California's Democrat-controlled  legislature passed the Joshua Tree Conservation Act, banning killing the trees without a permit.  But the law provided a loophole for green energy and housing projects.

State wildlife officials told The Times that the company must still relocate any desert tortoises or Mohave ground squirrels, which are listed as threatened under California law, that are found during construction.

Source: L.A. Times

https://www.yahoo.com/news/solar-project-destroy-thousands-joshua-100000768.html