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which it should be. carbon is not the only environmental issue we face. appalachia is the main channel of animal migration. its incredible. we should do all we

which it should be. carbon is not the only environmental issue we face. appalachia is the main channel of animal migration. its incredible. we should do all we can to protect it's integrity.

danans 5y ago
> which it should be. Solar power will never need to remove more than a tiny fraction of tree cover from Appalachia. What's a far bigger threat to the ecosystem, including animal migration, is mountaintop removal for coal mining: https://law.lclark.edu/live/blogs/134-de-regulation-of-mountain-top-removal-mining- https://law.lclark.edu/live/blogs/134-de-regulation-of-mount...
- jonnycomputer 5y ago
  Whatever. You can stop mountain removal mining for coal, and prevent environmentally sensitive land from being devastated for solar farms. Its not an either/or, since there is, in fact, plenty of other land that can be used for solar farms.
  - danans 5y ago
    > there is, in fact, plenty of other land that can be used for solar farms. If such land were available at an equivalent price to the hillside in question, why would anyone clear a hillside to install solar? All else equal, it's strictly more work/expense to build a solar farm on an incline. The price for the "other land" must not be right, or must have some other serious disadvantage.
    - jonnycomputer 5y ago
      Well, clearing the trees is already a profitable opportunity, if that is what happened. But my guess is we are talking about the idiosyncratic decisions of one landowner. Who knows if they did any kind of serious cost-benefit analysis. Or were you assuming that a solar company bought the land specifically to install solar. Possibly, but that's hardly clear to me. Besides, in the mountains, wind is probably the better bet. Now .. putting solar farms on top of already strip mined mountains makes sense to me. You've already flattened them, and farming is of the question. And it ... looks like that is happening. Tjough I don't know how the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act plays into that.

which it should be. carbon is not the only environmental issue we face. appalachia is the main channel of animal migration. its incredible. we should do all we can to protect it's integrity.

danans 5y ago

> which it should be. Solar power will never need to remove more than a tiny fraction of tree cover from Appalachia. What's a far bigger threat to the ecosystem, including animal migration, is mountaintop removal for coal mining: https://law.lclark.edu/live/blogs/134-de-regulation-of-mountain-top-removal-mining- https://law.lclark.edu/live/blogs/134-de-regulation-of-mount...

jonnycomputer 5y ago
Whatever. You can stop mountain removal mining for coal, and prevent environmentally sensitive land from being devastated for solar farms. Its not an either/or, since there is, in fact, plenty of other land that can be used for solar farms.
- danans 5y ago
  > there is, in fact, plenty of other land that can be used for solar farms. If such land were available at an equivalent price to the hillside in question, why would anyone clear a hillside to install solar? All else equal, it's strictly more work/expense to build a solar farm on an incline. The price for the "other land" must not be right, or must have some other serious disadvantage.
  - jonnycomputer 5y ago
    Well, clearing the trees is already a profitable opportunity, if that is what happened. But my guess is we are talking about the idiosyncratic decisions of one landowner. Who knows if they did any kind of serious cost-benefit analysis. Or were you assuming that a solar company bought the land specifically to install solar. Possibly, but that's hardly clear to me. Besides, in the mountains, wind is probably the better bet. Now .. putting solar farms on top of already strip mined mountains makes sense to me. You've already flattened them, and farming is of the question. And it ... looks like that is happening. Tjough I don't know how the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act plays into that.