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VOL. 11,
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Groundbreaking set for sustainable agriculture center in Riverside
One agency tried to regulate SpaceX. Now its fate could be in Elon Musk’s hands.
By Staff
By Heather Vogell, ProPublica
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onstruction is set to begin on Riverside’s green agriculture technology facility, and officials have invited the community for a groundbreaking ceremony next month. The Northside Agriculture Innovation Center, or NAIC, will use solar panels above fields of crops and on solar PV greenhouses to create a farming system that is resistant to climate change. According to a city statement, input from residents and community partners led to the decision to convert the once-vacant 8.8 acres land to “best serve the community as a space to improve health and wellness, develop the workforce, foster innovation, and create businesses in sustainable agriculture and food production.” The project utilizes agrivoltaics, which is the use of solar panels above farming fields and solar PV greenhouses to generate renewable electricity. “Riverside has a deep agricultural history as the birthplace of the citrus industry,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in a statement. “The NAIC is an opportunity to show the same level of leadership on ag issues into the coming century.” The groundbreaking ceremony was rescheduled for March after high winds in January and rain Thursday forced postponements. The
This is what officials expect an NAIC learning center to look like. | Photo courtesy of the city of Riverside
kickoff event for the project’s first phase is 9:30 a.m. March 4 at 900 Clark St. Phase 1 includes the competed site acquisition and soon the installation of about 50,000 square feet of solar PV greenhouses, 14,000 square feet of agrivoltaics, a 14,000-square-foot solar PV pole barn, a 30-plot community garden, outdoor farmer training facilities, trails, 450 trees and utility and water infrastructure, officials said. The city has secured $9.8 million “for site development, amenities and workforce
training,” according to its website. Phase 2 will start when funding is available for the enclosure of the solar PV pole barn, which will have a “co-work learning center” with classrooms, offices, a demonstration kitchen and farm stand, according to the city. Street improvements, restroom facilities and completion of the project’s offsite trail system will round out Phase 2. See Agriculture center Page 27
Officials said the agriculture center is a transformative project for the Northside neighborhood, as well as the city and nation. For years area residents have waited for the green spaces “in an area that has been negatively impacted by environmental factors and blight.” Once transformed, the aim for ag center is for it to become a hub for “recreation, innovation and education.” Plans for the facility include a
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. When SpaceX’s Starship exploded in January, raining debris over the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the rocket program and ordered an investigation. The move was the latest in a series of actions taken by the agency against the world’s leading commercial space company. “Safety drives everything we do at the FAA,” the agency’s chief counsel said in September, after proposing $633,000 in fines for alleged violations related to two previous launches. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s response was swift and caustic. He accused the agency of engaging in “lawfare” and threatened to sue it for “regulatory overreach.” “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!” Musk wrote on X. Today, Musk is in a unique position to deliver that change. As one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers and head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, he’s presiding over the administration’s effort to cut costs and slash regulation. While it’s unclear what changes his panel has in store for the FAA, current and former employees are bracing for Musk to focus on the little-known part of the agency that regulates his rocket company: the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST. “People are nervous,” said a former employee who did not want to be quoted by name talking about Musk. The tech titan and his company have been critical of the office, which is responsible for licensing commercial rocket launches and ensuring public safety around them. After the fines in September, SpaceX sent a letter to Congress blasting AST for being too slow to keep up with the booming space industry. That same month, Musk called on FAA chief Mike Whitaker to resign and told attendees at a conference in Los Angeles, “It really should not be possible to build a giant rocket faster than paper can move from one desk to another.” FAA leadership seems to have heard him. The day of Trump’s inauguration, Whitaker stepped down — a full four See SpaceX Page 04
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