Carrizo Plain, CA -- Two environmental groups and a California Valley resident have filed a lawsuit that attempts to stop a recently approved commercial solar project on the Carrizo Plain.
The groups, Carrizo Commons and North County Watch, and resident Michael Strobridge, have petitioned the San Luis Obispo Superior Court to overturn the county’s approval of the 250-megawatt California Valley Solar Ranch. The lawsuit cites many of the same arguments the litigants used to fight the project during the two years it went through the county’s permitting process. The main argument is that the project would violate the public trust by causing irreparable harm to the many rare and endangered plants and animals found on the Carrizo Plain.
Defendants in the case are the county government, project applicant SunPower Corp. and a variety of Carrizo Plain landowners on whose property the project will be built, as well as PG&E, which has contracted to buy the power that the project would produce.

SLO County supervisors gave final approval the SunPower project April 19. It is one of two large-scale commercial photovoltaic projects proposed for the Carrizo Plain. Earlier this month, the county Planning Commission approved a separate 550-megawatt solar project to the west of the SunPower project. An appeal to the Board of Supervisors of the second project, the Topaz Solar Farm by First Solar, is considered likely.