Court lifts ban on Churchill County geothermal plant
A rare Dixie Valley toad sits in grass in June 2017 in the Dixie Meadows in Churchill County. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP)
RENO — A federal appeals court has lifted a temporary ban on construction of a Churchill County geothermal power plant opposed by a tribe and conservationists who say the site is sacred and home to a rare toad being considered for endangered species protection. U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones in Reno had granted the 90-day injunction last month sought by opponents of Ormat Technologies' Dixie Meadows project at the high-desert site bordering wetlands fed by hot springs east of Fallon. A two-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a one-page ruling without explanation late Friday staying Jones' injunction pending its full consideration of the appeal on the merits of the case. It also granted the opponents' request to expedite the review but indicated that wouldn't be complete before April. The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and the Center for Biological Diversity won the earlier court order temporarily banning any work on the project they say would turn a "unique, remote desert oasis into an industrial site." Ormat said in its appeal last month it might be forced to abandon the project if it couldn't begin construction by Feb. 28 about 100 miles east of Reno.
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