What follows is the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association's summary of its arguments supporting adoption of the original Section 4.10 language for San Bernardino County's Renewable Energy Conservation Element (RECE). County Land Use Services has proposed "recommended" language that leaves out community protections. Chuck Bell, president of LVEDA has noted that the new language is "totally useless," adding that it is nothing more than what CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) already requires.
Bell refers to the new proposed language as "an affront to constituents that have worked with County staff and BOS (Board of Supervisors) members over many years thinking the County really wanted to protect our communities."
SUMMARY
Caltrans’ Hwy 247 (Barstow and Old Woman Springs Roads) ‘scenic eligibility’ status protects it from major scenic intrusions – precluding large scale solar - and the County needs to maintain its potential for eventual State Scenic Hwy designation.
CPUC’s Office of Rate Payer Advocates (ORA’s), SCE’s and PG&E’s recent submissions to the CPUC state no additional RPS (renewable procurements) are needed until ‘2033 or the forseeable future.
So much solar generation that it is currently sluffed off the grid or given away to other states – but projects still being filed. It’s bad enough to allow industrial solar when distributed energy is dominating the field - let alone the County sacrificing our environments and communities for out-of-state energy export. There is plenty of sun to go around.
California’s requirement that all new residential dwellings will be required to install solar panels after 2020 – thus eliminating the need for additional industrial scale plants.
Lucerne Valley’s demographics and its “Severely Economically Disadvantaged Community” status can’t afford projects that produce no economic benefits and that have already caused significant property devaluations. This is a “Hardship/Environmental Justice” issue the County can’t ignore.
Numerous bankruptcies of solar/wind firms.
The 2007 Lucerne Valley Community Plan has policies directly forbidding large-scale intrusive projects.
Even the Countywide Vision Statement inherently supports “no industrial scale in community plan areas”.
The County’s current “Solar Ordinance” is a major argument for “no industrial scale in community plan areas”.
Even RECE w/o the original Section 4.10 is sufficient to deny projects – making it difficult to make findings of approval.
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