In what is possibly the most transparent move in the history of the Executive Branch, the Bush administration has called for a two-year moratorium on new solar projects on federal lands while it studies the environmental impact.
The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating.
After spending the last 7 years obstructing the EPA, the administration would have the public swallow with complete credulity the idea that it is now deeply concerned about the effect of energy plants on the environment.
The move could not be any more transparent, as it coincides precisely with the same administration's call for renewed offshore drilling, declaring that now is not the time to worry about environmental harm which may stem from the drilling. Although solar energy is a microscopic portion of the total domestic energy picture, the elimination of even the possibility of alternative forms of energy is just one more way for the administration to push the nation further toward the cliff of fatal oil dependency.
Bush, in public statements, recognizes the need for alternative energy, but in practice he has done everything in his power, sometimes beyond it, to prevent the EPA from preventing oil exploration. Yet, now his environmental conscience won't allow him to witness solar energy proceeding without two years of study.
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