The Washington Post ran a story in December, which we posted on, about the role Californians plan to play in creating a new order in Washington. My favorite quote was from Senator Boxer: "It's like the EPA has been asleep for eight years. The Californians are coming to wake the sleeping beauty."

A wake up call was certainly issued by one of the Californians Senator Feinstein a few days ago when she "announced her intention to introduce new legislation to establish a national monument to preserve hundreds of thousands of acres in the Mojave Desert."  Sounds good right? But while waking up this desert beauty, she was telling renewable energy to take a coma.

"That's why I am very concerned about wind and solar development proposals intended for these lands. I'm a strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology -- but it is critical that these projects are built on suitable lands. The former Catellus lands shouldn't be eligible for development."

Not only would this bill bar the installation of industrial solar facilities, but it would probably make it very difficult (if not impossible) to construct the Green Path North, a renewable transmission line from the Imperial Valley to Los Angeles. The link goes to ProjectNoProject.com a new site we launched to give the gory details on the delays that the project has experienced. 

As you can imagine, we didn't build the entire site around that one project. In fact hundreds of projects necessary for the production and transmission of renewable energy have been delayed by folks who are a "strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology" but feel that the definition of "suitable land" is "Not In My Back Yard."

We strongly support the development and deployment of new energy technologies. In fact we support "green jobs" so much we think that they should actual be created, here and now, not somewhere else and never. We hope that by listing out these projects the absurdity of it all will become evident and policy makers will stop talking and start walking. To the store. To buy a pair of scissors. To cut the "green tape."

All of this obstruction is for the birds, so check out the site, and please comment with other projects that have been delayed in your backyard. The vision of a green energy future is a promising one, but vision without resources is merely a hallucination.  Do we wake or sleep?