As viewed through a cactus, field biologist Colden McClurg, of Los Osos, monitors a road grader ope

As viewed through a cactus, field biologist Colden McClurg, of Los Osos, monitors a road grader operator's path to ensure compliance with state and federal permits and all mitigation measures within the permits at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Facility in the eastern Mojave Desert, about five miles from Primm, Nevada. Federal biologists are relocating desert tortoises out of harms way for construction crews. More than a dozen federally threatened tortoises will be rounded up and relocated in order to clear the way for construction. Federal wildlife authorities are permitting teams of biologists to dig hibernating tortoises out of their burrows, and clear out all wildlife and relocate them from the path of the road grader. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Facility won approval from the federal Bureau of Land Management on Thursday to proceed with construction, making them eligible for federal stimulus funds. Brightsource Energy Inc. is likely to be the first major solar developer in decades to break ground in the California desert, which will start construction in the coming weeks in San Bernardino County. (Photo by Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)