California Supreme Court Tosses Solar Project Lawsuits

The court denied Sierra Club’s lawsuit without comment Wednesday and did the same for another lawsuit from California Unions for Reliable Energy. The court rulings are crucial win for California Energy Commission, which started to face legal challenges after approving Calico and eight other solar power projects totaling about 4.1 gigawatts last year. The commission approved the projects within four months partly to ensure the project developers would be able to meet the filing deadline for a federal program that covers 30 percent of a project’s cost. California also requires its utilities to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and 33 percent by 2020.  

The commission worked with the federal Bureau of Land Management to fast track some of these projects because they are proposed to be built on BLM land. As a result, several environmental and community groups filed lawsuit not only against the commission but also the federal government.