Energy corridors across the West raise concerns (OilCos use public lands)

[Robbien]

By JANET WILSON Los Angeles Times

Under orders from Congress to move quickly, the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management will approve thousands of miles of new power line and pipeline corridors on federal lands across the West in the next 14 months. The energy corridors are likely to cross national parks, forests and military bases as well as other public land.

Environmentalists and land managers worry about the risk of pipeline explosions and permanent scarring of habitat and scenery from pylons and trenches. Military officials have expressed concern that the installations could interfere with wartime training.

But energy industry lobbyists and congressional policymakers said quick approvals for new corridors are vital to moving adequate power from coal beds, oil fields and wind farms in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to the booming population centers of the Southwest.

In California, ExxonMobil, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric and others have proposed corridors across Death Valley, Joshua Tree and Lassen Volcanic national parks as well as the Mojave National Preserve, several military bases, Anza Borrego Desert State Park and seven national forests.

Corridors also are proposed for Canyonlands National Park in Utah and Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Las Vegas. Routes near the Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains also have been proposed, some as much as five miles wide and 2,000 miles long. Once the Western lands project is complete, Congress has ordered it to be replicated across the rest of the contiguous U.S. by 2009.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-pipelinedog_04nat.ART.State.Bulldog.90a0678.html

[Robbien]

1. Who will pay, the public of course

Mr. Geesman said it was unclear who would ultimately pay for the new utility lines, and the public might have to pay the tab, either through construction subsidies or utility bill increases.

Energy companies prefer public land because access across it is free or cheap, requiring modest lease payments at most, and poses fewer problems than securing the rights from multiple private properties, he said.

Corridor width is also an issue. Southern California Edison wants a milewide corridor across the Mojave, for example. Ms. Hunt of the Edison Electric Institute said that bundling many lines close together can jeopardize safety and reliability. But she said energy companies would be willing to share corridors if given exemptions from full environmental review on specific projects.

[ShockediSay]

2. If "industry lobbyists...said quick approvals...are vital"

you know they are vital to the few and not the vast majority.

TAX LOBBYING FEES!!!