... AS GREENIES HOLD UP SOLAR

The Bureau of Land Management announced that it's placing a two-year freeze on proposals for new solar-energy farms on federal lands, pending the results of ... an environmental impact study.

Turns out that with solar technology advancing briskly, energy firms have been rushing to get their hands on the flat, sun-drenched land the federal government holds in abundance in many western states - more than 1 million acres. That's a lot of land - and it's apparently got the feds thinking about the farms' impact on wildlife. [snip]

Still, such an environmental hiccup for one of America's prestige "green" industries does rather put the rest of the national energy debate in perspective:

The Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where up to 16 billion barrels of oil could be extracted from a mere 2,000-acre footprint - but for politicians' carping about the "pristine natural beauty" of a wasteland no more inspiring than any of the deserts so primed for solar energy...

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