Judge rejects environmental groups’ lawsuit on San Benito solar project

Handing a victory to traders wishing to construct among the world’s biggest photo voltaic farms, a San Benito County judge has declined a legitimate challenge by environment groups who the project would harm wildlife.

Inside a nine-page ruling, Superior Court Judge Robert O’Farrell stated that people from the San Benito County board of administrators didn’t violate condition law this past year once they approved the $1.8 billion proposal to place as much as 4 million solar power panels in Panoche Valley, an arid expanse of rangeland about 50 miles southeast of Hollister.

“What we are attempting to do is help the atmosphere and lower California’s reliance upon dirty non-renewable fuels,” stated John Pimentel, leader of PV2 Energy, a company with offices in Menlo Park and Bay Area. “We’d have a much common support in the environment community due to the advantageous impact for quality of air and security.”

However the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and several local citizens referred to as Save Panoche Valley prosecuted to bar the project, declaring the 399-megawatt project that might be built over the roughly 3,200 acres west of Interstate 5 would disrupt the rural character from the area and harm the endangered San Joaquin Package Fox, blunt-nosed leopard lizard and giant kangaroo rat.

The judge switched back the groups’ arguments, stating that the county administrators correctly adopted the California Environment Quality Act and also the Williamson

Act, particularly because the designers decided to buy 23,000 adjacent acres and put them in permanent conservation easements.

Pimentel stated his company hopes to interrupt ground by 2013 or 2014, and also the project’s competitors stated Thursday they haven’t made the decision whether or not to appeal.

“We’re very disappointed,” stated Shani Kleinhaus, an advocate using the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, located in Cupertino. “We believe the environment harm is going to be substantial.”