The Eastern Sierra. Death Valley. Two of the most iconic American landscapes. Irreplacable beauty and unparalleled biodiversity- where the mountains meet the desert. This is one of the most unique places in the world.

And Inyo County wants to put solar here.

Inyo County is proposing to designate eight Solar Energy Development Areas (SEDAs) in the Owens Valley/Eastern Sierra and Death Valley Regions! These SEDAs would be site of intensive utility-scale solar development, irreversibly changing the local ecology and the landscape. The SEDAs are nestled between numerous federally designated Wilderness Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, and Death Valley, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks. This is not an appropriate place for industrialized energy production!

This is a map of the proposed Solar Energy Development Areas in the Death Valley Region.

This is a map of the county-wide SEDA proposals.

This petition is meant for people who have visited the Eastern Sierra and Death Valley Regions, and appreciate their remote and undeveloped character. Inyo County should know that the experience of tourists and adventurers who visit the area will change dramatically if part of the area is converted to an industrialized energy production zone.

By signing this petition you are telling Inyo County that you'd prefer the Eastern Sierra and Death Valley Regions the way they are- remote, undeveloped, and wild.

This comment letter on the PEIR is brought to you by the Amargosa Conservancy and the Owens Valley Committee. For more information on our work, visit us at http://www.amargosaconservancy.org, and http://www.ovcweb.org/.

For more information on Hidden Hills, the project that was already proposed and failed to go through in the Charleston View area, check out Basin and Range Watch's page.

To review the actual Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, through which Inyo County is proposing these designations, check out the Inyo County Planning Department website.

For more information on some of the environmental impacts associated with utility-scale solar in the desert, check out these links:

http://berc.berkeley.edu/big-solar-and-avian-mortality/​

http://berc.berkeley.edu/utilityscale-renewables-projects-face-permitting-challenges-on-native-american-lands/​

http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2014/03/07/interior-moving-forward-with-contentious-desert-solar-projects/​

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/are-big-desert-solar-farms-killing-birds​