{
  "id": 9604063,
  "title": "Green Energy Is Coming for the Desert",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/green-energy-is-coming-for-the-desert",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-24T18:20:46.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Intercept",
    "slug": "the-intercept-theintercept",
    "url": "https://theintercept.com/2026/09/24/solar-farms-mojave-desert-renewable-energy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the Mojave Desert, two activists, Kevin Emmerich and Laura Cunningham, are fighting against two major solar projects proposed on BLM-managed lands. They are worried that these projects will destroy the desert ecology and bring little benefit to the local community. Cunningham, a wildlife biologist and desert tortoise researcher, points out that deserts, including the Mojave, sequester up to 28% of land-based carbon, playing an important role in absorbing climate-warming carbon. She warns that building solar farms in these habitats would actually contribute to climate change by crushing lichens, shrubs, and flowers and releasing carbon. Emmerich echoes these concerns, emphasizing that deserts have a high potential for carbon sequestration due to the roots of creosote plants, which absorb carbon from the atmosphere and convert it into oxygen.",
  "summary": "Trump’s Bureau of Land Management is pushing to aggressively expand solar farms into the Mojave Desert, which advocates say would decimate its vast biodiversity. The post Green Energy Is Coming for the Desert appeared first on The Intercept .",
  "key_points": [
    "Kevin Emmerich and Laura Cunningham oppose Mojave solar projects",
    "Deserts sequester up to 28% of land-based carbon",
    "Building solar farms could release stored carbon"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Intercept",
        "title": "Green Energy Is Coming for the Desert",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/green-energy-is-coming-for-the-desert-9608826",
        "published": "2026-09-24T18:20:46.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}