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J.E.DYER: NEVADA STANDOFF ABOUT SOLAR-INDUSTRY CRONIES, CHINESE NOT INVOLVED…….

 

This is the definitive go-to article on the subject as a whole. Jennifer has taken the time to go through the facts of the situation, to give us a complete run down on what is exactly the issue here.

NOTE: The Bundy family has no problem with paying taxes to the state for grazing cattle on state land, it’s just when the BML (federal division) butted in, that the trouble started.

Nevada standoff: Yes, it’s solar-industry cronies (but NOT the Chinese)

By J.E. Dyer on April 12, 2014 at 10:53 pm

Tortoises -- and ranchers -- beware.

Tortoises — and ranchers — beware.

My colleague Renee Nal pointed out yesterday that the federal government itself has been complicit in plans to euthanize hundreds of Desert Tortoises, the endangered species supposedly at the center of the just-ended cattle-ranch standoff in Nevada.

That’s one part of a bigger picture involving the corruption-ridden, taxpayer-dependent solar industry.  But this story isn’t the one you may have seen already, about Harry Reid and the Chinese energy firm ENN.  I actually think that story is off-base, as we’ll see below.  What the hounding of Cliven Bundy is about instead is the interests involved in a solar farm that is connected with the grazing area for Cliven Bundy’s cattle.

There’s a whole separate argument to be made about property rights, size of government, government versus the property owner, etc.  Along with Kevin D. Williamson, who has put a nice downpayment on that discussion at National Review, LU’s Nate and Renee (again) have put down markers.  More on this in the days ahead.

But this other matter needs to be addressed first.  There’s been a widely disseminated report (see link above) that the Bundy family is being hounded with special vigor right now because of a solar-farm project involving Chinese firm ENN, whose chief counsel in the USA is Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid.  Much of the background reporting in that story is correct, including the fact that the Bureau of Land Management’s current director moved to that job from a position on Harry Reid’s staff.  The BLM study objecting to the Bundy cattle, and tying it to a “mitigation proposal” for solar-energy projects, is also relevant.

It’s just not relevant to the Chinese-backed solar project.  ENN dropped that project in June of 2013.  It’s no longer an active proposal, nor does the area for the project fall within one of the 17 “solar energy zones” (SEZs) designated by the Department of the Interior in 2012.

Moreover, the ENN project was unrelated to Cliven Bundy’s grazing easement on federal lands.  Its proposed location was down by Laughlin, well to the south of Gold Butte, the federal-lands area where multiple interests have been clashing with the Bundy family’s for the last 20 years.  See map 1.

Solar energy project areas in southern Nevada. (Google map; author annotation)

Map 1. Solar energy project areas in southern Nevada. (Google map; author annotation)

Mitigation for solar energy projects

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One Response

  1. thanks for an apparently well researched and well written story on the Bundy/BLM standoff. Have you determined the Reids’ connection to First Solar? First Solar is an “LLC”: are LLC’s required to divulge names of “members”.

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