As you may have heard, President Obama has decreed that by the end of next year, 10 percent of the country’s power must come from renewable energy sources.  By the year 2025, he wants that number to be 25 percent.

The U.S. has designated over 675,000 acres of land for an in-depth study to determine their possible use for solar energy development.  The land encompasses Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

More than half of the proposed study area is in California’s Mojave Desert, although it is possible that not all of this land will be needed for that purpose.  According to the government, if the lands best suited for solar energy plants are fully developed, they could produce enough electricity to power millions of homes.

On the surface that seems like a great idea.  Use the barren deserts to build solar energy plants and reduce the need for electricity produced by conventional fossil fuel burning plants.  That’s a win-win situation, right?  Well, maybe not.

I had heard there were objections to this desert idea.  Initially, I just figured it was the Republicans who didn’t like it.  You know the deal, whichever party is in the White House the other party has to disagree with them.  It’s just normal politics, or so I thought.

As it turns out there are certain environmental groups who don’t like the idea, the Sierra Club for one.  They feel that the land being earmarked by the government is too large and will have a detrimental impact on wildlife habitats and the desert’s ecosystem. There are some endangered species living in the study area as well, such as the Desert Tortoise and Nelson’s Bighorn Sheep.

The environmentalists feel the government should use lands that are closer to urban areas, since transmission lines are already in place there.  This would reduce the need for power lines springing up all over the desert.  At least one senator has proposed legislation to turn the land into a national monument, which would prevent any future development.

The need for clean, affordable energy sources to produce electricity is a no-brainer.  There’s no doubt that the Southwest provides some of the best conditions in the world for solar energy plants.  The only question is: what will it cost in terms of protected wildlife and the fragile desert ecosystem?

Hopefully, some sort of solution can be found.