The Fish and Wildlife Service refused to attend a hearing Thursday to discuss penalties for a huge federally backed solar power plant that has incinerated dozens of protected birds with the “death rays” it produces.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, chaiman of the House Natural Resources Committee’s oversight and investigations panel, criticized the Ivanpah power plant’s harm to wildlife while failing to meet power production goals.
“The killing of the migratory birds, what are called ‘streamers’ at Ivanpah, carry stiff federal penalties for most citizens,” Gohmert said in opening remarks. “But in yet another example of a federal double standard, it is unclear what the Department of Interior has done to protect these animals and hold these companies accountable.”
“From the time of its construction onward, countless desert tortoises have been killed and dislocated,” he said. “Its giant mirrors attract great numbers of birds that are often incinerated in midflight by the mirror directed sunbeams,” which a committee memo refers to as “death rays.”
“We invited the Fish and Wildlife Service to help answer these questions, but they also refused to send a witness today,” Gohmert said.
The Energy Department also declined to send anyone to testify at the hearing, although an official at the Bureau of Land Management was scheduled to attend.
The $2.2 billion concentrated solar power plant in Nevada received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee and more than $500 million in federal grants to build the facility, even though the owners are some of the wealthiest companies in the country, including tech giant Google and investor-owned utility NRG.
The plant uses thousands of mirrors on 3,500 acres in the Mojave desert to direct concentrated sunlight at three towers. The sunlight boils water to generate steam that turns a turbine to produce electricity.
Gohmert said the plant has faced several setbacks this year when it failed to meet its contractual obligations to supply electricity to California. In addition, the power plant takes enormous amounts of water to cool and keep its hundreds of thousands of mirrors clean.
“To make the situation even more dire,” he said, “the very sun rays that are supposed to power the facility recently set one of the three [towers] on fire, knocking the unit out of commission.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the oversight panel, criticized Gohmert for picking on the Obama administration’s loan guarantee program, when the program was created by Republican President George W. Bush as a bridge to new technologies.
She called the hearing part of the GOP’s “grand finale” on “how we embarrass the administration” as the president’s term comes to an end.
“It seems to be in vogue these days to beat up on the Obama administration,” but “we need to stop playing the blame game and focus on the facts.”
The loan guarantee program is designed to “build a bridge over the valley of death” to develop more advanced technologies when the private sector won’t take the risk.
She said the Ivanpah plant, despite its performance hiccups, has met its debt obligations.
“We must invest in the future and not the past,” she said.
