BrightSource’s Solar Thermal Plant and the Desert Tortoise

Oakland, CA-based BrightSource will soon be raising $250 million in an IPO to complete a 393-megawatt solar thermal project in the Mojave Desert. The project is under attack, however, as the land involved in the deal is home to the desert tortoise. In fact, BrightSource has already shaved 500 acres (and about 50 megawatts) off of its original blueprints to accommodate concerns from environmentalists.

But don’t we need to weigh the environmental impact of the project – equivalent to taking 90,000 gas-powered cars off the road, against the plight of a certain number of desert tortoises? It seems ironic that we’re so compassionate towards our reptiles when we don’t seem as adamant in our dealings with coal-fired power plants, the noxious output of which causes the premature death of tens of thousands of human beings every year.