Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Tortoises and BrightSource Are Costing Taxpayers Dearly

Latest green energy boondoggle shows why the government shouldn't be picking winners

Julian Morris

Last year BrightSource Energy received a $1.6 billion taxpayer-backed loan guarantee. It's the same type of loan that failed solar panel company Solyndra received but couldn’t pay back, costing taxpayers over $500 million.

BrightSource’s half-completed Ivanpah power station in Eastern Mohave aims to harness the sun’s rays to generate carbon free electricity and “green” jobs and has been touted by some as an exemplary environmental project. But when contractors discovered more desert tortoises than expected, the project earned the ire of environmentalists – and resulted in an expensive translocation program for the tortoises.

The desert tortoise is a remarkable creature. For thousands of years it has lived in the mostly-inhospitable environment of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, eating the sparse grasses, herbs, shrubs, and early cacti, and escaping the searing 140 degree heat of the day by burrowing underground. But a combination of expanding human habitation, vandalism and capture has contributed to a rapid decline in tortoise numbers since the 1980s. Current estimates put the population at 100,000, making it a “threatened” species according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s criteria.

How much would you be willing to pay to save a single desert tortoise? $1? $10? $100? How about $108,910?

The Bald Eagle's Worst Enemy: How Federal Law Pits Landowners Against Eagles

Policy Brief 64

Brian Seasholes

The recovery of the bald eagle in the lower 48 states is a huge conservation success. But the lion's share of credit for the eagle's recovery should go to the 1972 ban of the pesticide DDT, not the Endangered Species Act, according to a new set of policy briefs by the Reason Foundation.

The Reason Foundation reports also suggest the Endangered Species Act often does more harm than good by pitting landowners against the very animals it is trying to save.

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