Satisfying Settlement: After Two-Plus Years of Stress and Expense, Lake Tamarisk Residents Reach an Agreement With Intersect Power Regarding the Easley Solar Project

In October 2022, the residents of Lake Tamarisk Desert Oasis—located near Desert Center, some 50 miles east of Indio—learned that another industrial-scale solar installation was being developed, and this one was going to be right next door to some of their homes. 

Called the Easley project, and owned by Intersect Power (IP), the proposed solar installation sparked the coalescence of a group of residents opposing the development plans, fearing both environmental and aesthetic damage. That group, Active Communities of Desert Center, aka AC/DC, has insisted from the start that they are not against solar energy production, or any other type of renewable energy, for that matter. However, they felt strongly that Intersect Power was not acting with concern about the project’s potential negative impacts on their community and their lives. 

As the regulatory processes played out, the residents suffered from anxiety, depression and other physical ailments, while investing a few thousand dollars and thousands of hours of time into their effort to stem the bureaucratic tide that was threatening to overwhelm them. They watched, often feeling helpless, as various governmental entities rejected their proposals and backed the IP-preferred development plan. 

Then, on Jan. 18, 2025, AC/DC welcomed what they considered to be miraculous news: Intersect Power and AC/DC’s legal representatives had reached a settlement agreement that addressed the most critical environmental and quality-of-life concerns. 

A truce, it seems, has been declared.

The AC/DC statement about the surprise settlement reads: “Over the course of the last few months, Intersect Power and Active Communities of Desert Center, representing the Lake Tamarisk community, have continued to work together to identify solutions to the community concerns raised during the development process. We have reached an agreement that provides the community with an additional one-mile buffer from the Easley Solar Project, as well as a donation, through the Active Communities of Desert Center group, to be used toward infrastructure upgrades benefiting the broader Lake Tamarisk Community. We are happy to be moving forward in a positive way.”

History shows how rare such an amicable resolution between renewable-energy project developers and communities adjacent to those projects is. Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of the Basin and Range Watch organization, praised the result and the AC/DC team’s determination in an email to the Independent.

“Our friends in the community of Lake Tamarisk were very organized and never gave up,” Emmerich said. “It is very impressive to finally see a solar developer listen to local concerns and scale their project back to help protect the community and local environment. We hope this sends out a clear message to other aggressive solar developers that small communities matter, and are strong advocates for smarter management of public lands.”

But up until Jan. 18, Lake Tamarisk residents were being exhausted by a struggle they felt was slanted strongly in Intersect Power’s favor.

Before the settlement, on Dec. 26, 2024, the group of resisters had submitted a final appeal to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the plan that had been defended mightily by Intersect Power. Along with the appeal, AC/DC was required to submit a request for a stay to be issued.

“This is it,” said Mark Carrington, AC/DC’s senior technical adviser, during an interview with the Independent held prior to the settlement announcement. “And you know, the odds are small. … Nobody’s gotten (a stay) on a renewable-energy project that I can see in the last four years. … But when you read our appeal, it is based on major errors in the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process. That’s what we’re actually appealing, that the decision was made on bad information, and part of that information was purposely withheld.”

Specifically, the appeal claimed misrepresentation of the project’s proximity to the community of Lake Tamarisk; a failure to address critical groundwater data gaps and cumulative impacts; and the improper reclassification of general public lands under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan through an “illegitimate ‘plan maintenance’ action.”

Throughout 2023 and 2024, the disagreements between AC/DC and Intersect Power had escalated steadily. An attorney, Frank Angel, of Angel Law, was hired to represent the residents’ cause, and the opposing parties presented their arguments, first to the Riverside County Planning Department, and then to the county’s Board of Supervisors, both of which had to approve the use of county lands included in the project. Next, the residents had to go before the BLM, which likewise had to approve the project’s use of federal lands. 

Unfortunately, that resistance came at a high price. Not only did the group pay thousands of dollars to hire the attorney, make round trips from Desert Center to Riverside or somewhere in the Coachella Valley for meetings and hearings, and pay for other ancillary presentation-related expenses; there were physical and emotional costs as well.

“I had to start taking antidepressants again, which I had stopped taking years ago,” said Teresa Pierce, the chief executive officer of AC/DC, during the recent group interview. “I was doubled over in pain several hours a day for a long time due to recurring stomach issues. Eventually, it started to kind of ease up, and I was able to go off my medicine. But as soon as we started this (latest) appeal process, my stomach has been acting up again. … This has put a strain on my marriage, because I’ve just spent more time with these people (on the AC/DC team) than I have with my own husband. … Then, when (meetings and press interviews) are going on out here, he’s been the designated driver. He really stepped up to the plate when it was necessary. He’s given up his life for this, and given up his wife, so it’s put a strain on our marriage for sure.”

AC/DC technical adviser Vicki Bucklin said she didn’t suffer from physical health effects, but the process took a psychological toll.

“For the first year, my mother was ailing, and I couldn’t go outdoors when it was dusty, because we were dealing with the Oberon (solar project development’s construction),” Bucklin said. “And when I asked Intersect Power to do something about it, they said they’d help me put up shades, (because) there was glare in our windows, since we couldn’t sit on the porch in the afternoon. Those kinds of things were really stressful for me. … We were trying to educate Intersect Power, and help them develop their project without hurting us. But I couldn’t really get involved, because I didn’t want my mother thinking about this problem. I didn’t want to talk about it when she was around, and I was with her almost all the time. … I would look at emails (regarding the solar project) at night and miss my sleep.”

Carrington said people can only take a finite amount of stress. 

“When you do one thing which consumes your life like this has, you do that at the expense of other things in your life that you would have been doing (instead), whether it’s sharing with other people or your family,” Carrington said. “So that’s a cost—and the physical costs of that much stress and constant thought on one subject eventually harms your body. Although I can’t draw a one-to-one correlation … the fact is, a lot more things happened in my life in the last two years, health-wise, than had happened for the previous 40 years.”

One of the most stressful days for the AC/DC team was Aug. 27, 2024. On that day, stakeholders gathered before the Riverside County Board of Supervisors for a hearing on Easley Project environmental impact report and construction plan. 

The AC/DC team made a strong presentation, pointing out discrepancies, errors or misrepresentations they felt had been made by the company Aspen Environmental Group (AEG) in their creation of the environmental impact report. On the proponents’ side, representatives from AEG, IP, labor unions and others spoke in favor of the project, each expressing a particular benefit that would result for them. 

About three hours into the discussion, Riverside County District 4 Supervisor V. Manuel Perez courteously, but abruptly, interrupted the ongoing comments.

“To my colleagues here, and community folk—that includes all of you that are here and online, those representing Intersect, (and) those representing the community of Lake Tamarisk—I was prepared to make a decision today. But there are a few things that need to be taken care of, so I’m going to ask that we continue this item. Can we continue it to Oct. 1? Because I do have some questions.”

His call for a continuance seemingly caught the board chair, District 3 Supervisor Chuck Washington, off guard, and he moved quickly to bring the hearing back on track. Camille Wasinger, senior director of environmental and permitting at IP, walked to the public lectern and spoke up: “The primary reason we’re looking for a decision from the board today is to ensure that our project can adequately protect the desert tortoise. So, we have to complete desert tortoise clearance surveys prior to the start of construction, and there are only two two-month windows during the year when those clearance surveys can occur, and those clearance surveys have to be completed after a five-month process of constructing a desert tortoise fence. So, in order for this project to stay on schedule, we have to hit the April-May desert tortoise clearance survey window in 2025, and in order to do that, we have to start construction of that desert tortoise fence … in November. I would also just add that this project has been very extensively studied, under the EIR process. There have been over 90 days of public comment already. The facts and the science are not going to change. … I would strongly encourage the board to make a decision today.” 

It seems that both Perez and Washington believed the vague threat from IP that the project could go away if it was not approved that day. They quickly moved to end the discussion and bring the matter to a vote.

The motion to approve was passed 5-0.

Bucklin said the hearing was especially frustrating because supervisors admitted they didn’t know anything about “Alternative C,” the project development plan created by the AC/DC group, and selected as the environmentally superior or preferred option during the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review. 

“That is Perez’s fault,” Bucklin said. “… He threw us under the bus, and it’s all for money. We know it’s all for money.”

Riverside County is poised to benefit from both the property taxes it will collect from IP for the roughly 1,000 county-owned acres included in the Easley project footprint, along with other revenue streams.

Now that a settlement has been agreed upon, the AC/DC administrative team has a message for all others who are confronted with gargantuan energy projects being developed in their locales: Fight to protect your way of life, your property and rights, and do not give up.

“Just to OK something because we think we’re saving the planet, but at the sacrifice of local communities when there’s no necessity to do that, makes zero sense and shouldn’t be supported,” Carrington said. “You can still (build) all the renewable energy that you want without harming communities.”