Film on downside of green energy development makes Las Vegas debut

In a Feb. 7, 2011 photo, Alfredo Figueroa, with the La Cuna de Aztlan Sacred Sites Protection Circle, who has filed three federal lawsuits against six fast-tracked solar projects, poses in Blythe, Calif., at the site of a desert geoglyph. The group claims federal officials sped through the approval process for a series of solar projects planned on vast tracks of public land in the West dismissing their concerns that the massive projects could harm sacred sites.

A new documentary exploring the impact of large-scale renewable energy projects on desert ecosystems and American Indian heritage will make its Nevada debut at the Clark County Library on Flamingo Road at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The film “Who Are My People?” focuses on ancient geoglyphs — basically giant landscape drawings created thousands of years ago and meant to be viewed from the sky — in an area designated for solar power development near Blythe, Calif. But it also serves as a broader attack on the Obama Administration, which filmmaker Robert Lundahl contends is encouraging rapid utility-scale green energy development on public land without properly addressing concerns raised by tribal leaders and environmentalists.

The film premiere is meant to serve as a counterpoint to the day-long National Clean Energy Summit, which will draw a host of dignitaries to Mandalay Bay Tuesday to sing the praises of renewable power.

“Who Are My People?” will be shown in the main auditorium of the library at 1401 E. Flamingo Road. The doors open at 6:30 p.m., and a conversation with Lundahl and native elders will follow the 7 p.m. screening.

Tickets are $7.50 at the door or $7 if you order them online in advance at brownpapertickets.com/event/432635.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.