Burning Man latest foe of 'green energy' project in Nevada

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Add Burning Man to the list of plaintiffs challenging one of the growing number of “green energy” projects in the works in Nevada.

Lithium mines aimed at boosting production of electric vehicle batteries and geothermal power plants that tap underground water to produce renewable energy are at various stages of planning and development in the nation’s top gold mining state.

Environmental groups, Native American tribes and ranchers are among those who’ve filed lawsuits over the past two years seeking to block individual projects.

They say that while they support reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to help combat climate change, the commercial developments on public land in Nevada were approved illegally and will have their own environmental and cultural consequences.

Now, the group that stages perhaps the most famous counterculture event in the world is among those facing off against the U.S. government over geothermal exploration in the Nevada desert where 70,000 free spirits known as “Burners” gather every summer.

The San Francisco-based Burning Man Project and four co-plaintiffs filed the new lawsuit in federal court in Reno this week accusing the Bureau of Land Management of breaking environmental laws in approving Ormat Nevada Inc.’s exploratory drilling in the Black Rock Desert 120 miles (193 kilometers) north of Reno.

Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Friends of Black Rock/High Rock Inc. and two local residents of Gerlach joined the suit that says the agency’s environmental review of the exploration project ignored potential harms that could come from a large-scale geothermal project.

“Ormat’s exploration project will lay the foundation for turning a unique, virtually pristine ecosystem of environmental, historical and cultural significance into...