Renewable energy is a good thing, reducing our dependence on foreign oil and accomplishing mandates by state and federal agencies. It's clear that Southern California is a target area for successful wind and solar projects by energy producers across the country. We got the sun and we got the wind. Our public lands, however, are being attacked from every angle by every entity.

Try to picture driving Old Woman Springs Road and quickly seeing 400-foot windmills on top on Black Lava Butte near Pioneertown Road and more on Flat Top. The most recent application is by Padoma Corp. for a wind farm out New Dixie Mine Road.

Continuing north at Landers, a 3,500-acre solar farm engulfing Goat Mountain and Spy Mountain near historic Giant Rock.

From there, on both sides of Old Woman Springs Road you can observe multiple solar fields all the way to Lucerne Valley and beyond created by companies such as Chevron, Edison, Solar One and Padoma, to mention a few.

This scenario is real and is enhanced by a bill that includes the proposed Mojave National Monument that Senator Feinstein will submit to Congress. This bill will prevent huge solar and wind projects to the northeast along Route 66, putting more pressure on other areas, including the Morongo Basin.

The face of our desert will change in three years. Get involved, get informed.

Friends of Giant Rock would like to congratulate and thank BLM officers for their recent bust, catching taggers at Giant Rock. The perpetrators from Victor Valley College will have to pay $3,000 for restoration of the historic site. "Sometimes there's not enough rocks!"