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90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast
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90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast
Join Chris Clarke and a variety of guests as they explore the challenges and opportunities of the American Southwest’s fragile ecosystems. Engaging interviews with experts, activists, and advocates on conservation, land management, and environmental justice. Science and sentiment, politics and philosophy, hiking and history, culture and creativity all go into defending the desert. Be forewarned: We are out to recruit you to the cause.
We visit the Amargosa watershed to discuss Greenlink West, a transmission project now under construction that will ship energy from Vegas-area solar facilities to data centers near Reno. This project not only threatens to enable an explosion of data centers in Northern Nevada, but also incentivizes solar developers to concentrate development in largely untouched desert in the Mojave and Great Basin.
Key Takeaways:
The Greenlink West transmission line is purportedly for energy distribution but appears to primarily serve data centers.
NV Energy’s developments misalign with publicized renewable energy goals, potentially increasing the burden on natural gas resources.
The substation built in the Amargosa Valley indicates the impending rise of massive solar projects, with minimal benefits to local communities.
Sallying efforts such as the strengthening of water rights control and military navigation illustrate the complex web of interests surrounding the project.
The discourse reflects on broader energy infrastructure expansions, potentially at the expense of Nevada’s untouched desert landscape.
Notable Quotes:
“It used to be the Greenlink was to fight carbon emissions and climate change. But the goal has been becoming more obvious over the years that no, it’s just for hyperscale data centers that are going to suck up all of our energy and water.” – Laura Cunningham
“What if I told you, though, that there was a pretty good chance that data centers are going to seriously damage hundreds of square miles of the wild Mojave and Great Basin deserts in the state of Nevada?” – Chris Clarke
“This public land needs to be put to use and it’s not for people.” – Laura Cunningham
“The primary reason that so much solar was associated with Greenlink is because it was supposed to replace fossil fuel plants… they’re gonna just go with the flow with whatever market is available.” – Kevin Emmerich
“To me, this is such an interesting area because 30 air miles that way is Area 51.” – Laura Cunningham
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