Environmentalists clash over climate, conservation PDF Print E-mail
Written by FELICITY BARRINGER, New York Times   
Tuesday, 24 March 2009

As the Obama administration pushes renewable energy to fight climate change, some environmentalists are chafing at the notion of converting some of the country's open spaces into solar stations and wind farms.

Pristine places hold some of the richest wind, solar and geothermal resources in the country, but they are also premier habitat to rare creatures and playgrounds for nature-lovers.

The struggle for balance has been going on for a decade in Cape Cod, Mass., where a plan for an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound has met stiff opposition from local residents who fear harm to aquatic life and the view.

The battle has spread to the Mojave desert, where some environmentalists are ambivalent about putting a solar farm amid endangered desert tortoise habitat. "Deserts don't need to be sacrificed so that people in L.A. can keep heating their swimming pools," said Terry Frewin, a local Sierra Club representative.

Others environmentalists see renewables in open spaces as inevitable and necessary. "It's not enough to say no to things anymore," said Carl Zichella, a Sierra Club expert on renewable power. "We have to say yes to the right thing."

Zichella and Johanna Wald, a lawyer and longtime environmental advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, have joined an industry-dominated advisory group that makes recommendations to California regulators on sites for renewable-energy facilities.

"We have to accept our responsibility that something that we have been advocating for decades is about to happen," Wald said. "My job is to make sure that it happens in an environmentally responsible way."

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