All This Time and Nothing's Changed!

Has it really been a month? I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle... anyway, a short break followed by a two week vacation and it's back on line!

What is just as amazing as how fast time flies, is that nothing ever seems to change!

The top story in my aggregator this morning as from the Los Angeles Times about how environmental regualtions are slowing large-scale solar developments in the desert. How long have we been talking about this?

According to the Times:

"Companies are racing to finalize their permits and break ground by the end of next year, which would qualify them to obtain some of the $15 billion in federal stimulus funds designated for renewable energy projects.

At stake is the creation of 48,000 jobs and more than 5,300 megawatts of new energy, enough to power almost 1.8 million homes, according to federal land managers. But the presence of sensitive habitat, rare plants and imperiled creatures such as desert tortoises, bighorn sheep and flat-tailed horned lizards threatens to stall or derail some of the projects closest to securing permits."

The Times write-up doubles down on the regulatory gridlock that is keeping these projects in limbo by noting that, in addition to environmental issues, government bureacracy is now making the problem worse. Between fuloughs and budget cuts, state agencies simply cannot keep up with the paperwork.

I suppose the story is a microcosm for just about everything else that is going on in California... judge for yourself:

Environmental concerns delay solar projects in California desert [Los Angeles Times]