… Desert Center is nearly perfect for solar energy projects. When the nation began looking to transition away from the fossil fuels driving climate change, nearly half of the federal lands currently designated as areas for solar development were found in the Riverside East area Carrington and the neighborhood group he helps lead—the Active Community of Desert Center—call home. … The goal, federal officials, developers and environmentalists say of the planning, is to avoid conflict.  But Desert Center shows how such tensions are almost impossible to avoid. … As the solar farms kept coming, the locals, many of whom never knew the area around them had been designated for solar, began to push back. The development had eaten away at the desert they love, impacting desert tortoise habitat, and would now surround their community on three sides. The dust from the construction posed health concerns, and keeping it down with groundwater led local wells to run dry —something federal regulators approving the projects knew for years could happen.