Friday, October 31, 2008
Way To The White House Is Through The West, Says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
By Robert L. Candiotti
There were many renowned and engaging speakers at the Brookings Institution/University of Nevada, Las Vegas discussion held
at UNLV on October 28, 2008.
Talented speakers with various styles spoke of the challenges and dizzying possibilities for Nevada
and the other Mountain Mega states (Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico) up to the middle of this century.
Senate
Majority Lead Harry Reid, himself an excellent and unique speaker, gave the keynote talk. He spoke, as did the others,
mainly of the future for the Mountain Mega states, but one thing that he said pertains to the present moment.
The
presidential election will be in just four days. Tomorrow, Saturday, Barack Obama will be in Las Vegas. His wife, Michelle
Obama, is scheduled to be in North Las Vegas on Monday. Also on Monday, John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin will
- between them - be in Reno, Elko and Las Vegas. Palin will close her entire campaign late at night on Monday at
Elko High School.
Obama has come to Nevada around 20 timesin the past two years. McCain, in Nevada far
fewer times, wants to be in Nevada in the closing hours of the campaign. The fact that McCain and Palin will be
campaigning hard on the very eve of the election shows Nevada is considered an important and pivotal state.
Nevada went to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Right now, though, Obama is leading in the polls in Nevada.
At
the October 28 gathering at UNLV Reid said, "Everyone recognizes the way to the White House is through the West."
It will be interesting to learn on Tuesday night the outcomes of the Mountain Megas voting, and how these
votes affect the race itself.
7:00 pm pdt
Saturday, October 18, 2008
PRIMM, NEVADA - NOVEMBER 22, 2018...IVANPAH VALLEY AIRPORT OPENS FOR BUSINESS
By Robert L. Candiotti
PRIMM, NEVADA - NOVEMBER 22, 2018...Ivanpah Valley Airport opens for business today.
On
a typical crystal clear and cloudless morning in the Mojave Desert, the first inbound flight arrived at Ivanpah Valley Airport. A
Singapore Airlines advanced, double-deck Airbus A380, with more than 500 passengers, landed at 7:18.
As
the plane descended to Ivanpah's extra-long runway specially designed to accommodate A380 aircraft, passengers looking
out the impressive aircraft's more than 200 windows viewed below what had already made global news. For months, world-wide
media have been publicizing the world's first fully solar international airport.
Passengers could see for themselves
what the talk is all about. Ivanpah Valley Airport is the home of the world's largest photovoltaic power plant - spreading
out over 3,000 acres with more than two million solar panels.
Because Ivanpah Valley Airport, located 30 miles
south of Las Vegas, needed to be surrounded by thousands of acres of "noise compatibility" land that could not be
developed, and because of the abundance of sunshine in the area - as well as the significant success of the photovoltaic
array at neighboring Nellis Air Force Base years earlier - a solar powered airport with 3,000 acres of solar panels that hardly
rise above the desert floor was deemed attractive and workable.
Ivanpah's solar array not only powers
the airport, but also the nearby towns of Jean and Primm. Solar energy definitely works in Southern Nevada. Once
MIT researchers, in 2008, hit upon an attractive process for storing solar energy when there is no sunshine, the future of
inexpensive and efficient solar energy became - no pun intended - very bright.
When Barack Obama was elected president on
November 4, 2008, the push toward renewable energy took off like the wild horses that Nevada still does have and cherish.
This benefited greatly the prospects for Ivanpah Valley Airport.
Once the airport's Environmental Impact
Statement was completed and approved, the Ivanpah Valley Airport project moved ahead rapidly. Using the 140-acre photovoltaic power
plant at Nellis Air Foce Base as a model, work on the unprecedented 3,000-acre airport solar array began. Federal
and state governments supported the project.
Today, November 22, 2018, Ivanpah Valley Airport has become
the world's newest, and most energy advanced, international airport.
6:43 pm pdt
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Ivanpah Valley Airport Will Need Development Talent Equal To Abu Dhabi International Airport
By Robert L. Candiotti
Abu Dhabi International Airport is modernizing and expanding.
Matthew Mead is vice-president of programme management
and design director of Scadia (Supervision Committee for the Expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport).
According
to the 2008 Issue 2 of the global international aviation magazine futureairport, published in London, Mead has
been planning and building airports around the world since 1986. Regarding his Abu Dhabi design work, he says he gets guidance
from airports such as the ones in Tampa, Orlando, Hong Kong and Amsterdam.
Mead says Abu Dhabi International Airport,
in five years, will open a new 30-million passenger terminal, capable of handling all the various types of long-haul aircraft.
In August, 2006, Changi Airport of Singapore received a management contract for Abu Dhabi International Airport. In
January, 2007, Changi was also hired as a consultant to Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) for Abu Dhabi's airport development
goals.
Ivanpah Valley Airport - now projected to open around 2018 - will need development talent equal to the professional
guidance Abu Dhabi is receiving for its dramatically expanding airport.
8:40 pm pdt
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Does Current Economic Slowdown Affect Need For Additional Airport In Southern Nevada?
By Robert L. Candiotti
Ivanpah Valley Airport has often been described as being "supplemental" to Las Vegas' McCarran International
Airport. The fact that air traffic at McCarran is currently declining does reflect on the future of Ivanpah Valley Airport.
The need for Ivanpah - to be located 30 miles south of Las Vegas nect to I-15 - is based on in-depth projections that
McCarran's ability to expand will reach the limit around 2015.
Is the current weakness in Las Vegas' air
traffic business a temporary condition or is it the beginning of very long-term sluggishness in the U.S. and world economy?
Since Ivanpah - now scheduled to open around 2018 - is proposed to be primarily an international and long-haul airport,
trends among international air carriers are relevant.
In a September 26, 2008, Las Vegas Sun article by
Richard N. Velotta, it is reported Korean Air is suspending its 3X weekly nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Seoul.
Korean Airlines says its passenger loads on the route have been down, but it does expect to resume Seoul-Las Vegas-Seoul
flights in the middle of December. Logically, though, further erosion of the world's economy - and a reflection of this
in international air travel - could affect the timing of Korean Air's flight resumptions.
Domestic air
traffic demand should also be looked at.
In August, domestic air traffic at McCarran also declined. In a September
20, 2008, Las Vegas Review-Journal article, Benjamin Spillman states the passenger decline in August was the tenth
consecutive monthly decrease. According to the story, passenger traffic in August was down 4.8 percent from 2007.
It is noted traffic declined for US Airways, Southwest, United and Allegiant Air.
A spokesperson
for Southwest Airlines, Linda Macey, states, "We are evaluating our flight schedules at Las Vegas and throughout the
entire country on a daily basis right now."
The future of Ivanpah is, of course, tied to the current
economic decline. Lately fuel costs have been coming down, but, across the board, the economy is anemic.
Significantly, though, in other parts of the world - especially in Asia and the Middle East - airport development is strong
and creative, preparing for the future of aviation.
McCarran's ability to be part of the future of aviation
is limited. For example, it will never be able to handle the new double-deck Airbus A380.
The future
of aviation transcends the current economic downtown. At some point, strength in the U.S.'s and world's
economy will return. If Southern Nevada expects to be in the forefront of aviation modernization, it will have to build
futuristic aviation infrastructure in Ivanpah Valley with a vision that keeps prodding Ivanpah Airport, and
an inspired ground transportation system, along.
It is rather mind boggling. Ivanpah Valley Airport
will need to be constructed to be viable and efficient into at least the middle of the twenty first century.
11:43 am pdt
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Wind Power From The Mountains Above Ivanpah Gets Legal Turbines Spinning
By Robert L. Candiotti
Though it will not be ready to open until at least 2018, Ivanpah Airport is in the news regarding a United States
Court of Appeals ruling about wind turbines.
As Clark County, Nevada, airport authorities worked with the Federal
Aviation Administration to develop Ivanpah Valley Airport about 30 miles south of Las Vegas, an alternative-energy company
applied for permission to build a wind farm on Table Mountain, about 10 miles from the proposed airport.
The wind
farm would have 83 turbines, with 80 standing almost 400 feet tall.
The FAA studied the wind power plans and concluded
the turbines would not interfere with radar systems and would not affect airspace.
Clark County appealed the ruling,
and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has decided the FAA has not adequately explained
its reasoning or conclusions.
The Court of Appeals granted Clark County's petition for review and has vacated
the FAA's determinations.
The matter has been sent back to the FAA for further explanation.
5:50 am pdt
