From its early roots up until a few years ago, the sustainability revolution has presented a fairly unified goal of preserving the viability of natural resources while allowing the American economy to function effectively. But recent proposals in the drive to sustainability have turned age-old partners against each other.

A series of proposed clean energy projects in the American Southwest provides a perfect microcosm of the struggle. The Mojave Desert in California has been tagged as a potential gold mine for clean energy. Prevailing wind patterns have inspired massive wind energy projects, while sunny skies and swaths of undeveloped land have already lead to the construction of several solar power plants. Some think the area may be ripe for geothermal development as well.

With four major population centers within a few hundred miles of the desert, many environmentalists are pressing for additional clean energy projects. But their efforts are being facing resistance from an unlikely source—other environmentalists. “There's some conflict due to what's been described as a feeding frenzy for renewable energy in the desert,” says April Sall, who helps tend a nature conservancy in the region. “If you're going to destroy conservation and pristine lands, then yeah, how green is it in the end?”

Sall is one of a growing number of environmentalists who favor limiting clean energy projects to developed areas. The Sierra Club has been one of the largest proponents of this approach, voicing concern over projects conceived as sustainability improvements, by openly opposing Massachusetts’ Cape Wind project, and refusing thus far to endorse a controversial route through an undeveloped pass for California’s high-speed rail project. 

While market mechanisms often provide excellent solutions for thorny questions such as this, the value of the undisturbed beauty that has come to symbolize much of America's national character is difficult to quantify.  Low land prices in the rural expanses of the American West would almost certainly settle the economic question in favor of clean energy development, but I think even the most fervent clean energy developer will see that a sustainable, climate-stable planet covered entirely with cities and wind turbines would be a Pyrrhic victory in its truest form. 

The answer may lie, as it so often does, in a compromise solution. Sprawling cities, like Mojave neighbor Phoenix might find ample sources for cleaner power generation close to or within city limits, and could perhaps impose tax incentives for keeping development closer to the city. More compact cities offer fewer opportunities, but could still offer tax incentives to private land owners  to install solar and wind projects, reducing demand on the electrical grid as a whole, and limiting the need for new power installations.

Photo by Flickr user jcrakow