LOS ANGELES - Long before studies showed one of the world's largest solar projects could harm or kill more than 1,100 tortoises in the Mojave Desert, the threatened creature's longtime champion already had signed off on the project. Months earlier, the Center for Biological Diversity had agreed not to sue or challenge Oakland-based BrightSource Energy Co.'s project — expected to cost $2 billion — in exchange for additional protections and a swath of desert tortoise habitat elsewhere. Any finer points of the deal remain a mystery because the agreement is confidential. The unusual deal is one of several that environmental groups have cut in recent years, offering silence or...
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