| Take Action New Energy Pipelines and Electric Power Lines Proposed for America's Wild Lands
National Parks, Monuments, and Wildlife Refuges hardly seem appropriate places for new oil and gas pipelines, or electric power lines. Yet the Bush Administration is expediting the designation of an industry "wish list" of energy corridors on federal lands; special areas like Arizona's Sonoran Desert National Monument, New Mexico's Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and Maryland's C&O Historic Park could be affected.
These intrusive and damaging energy corridor designations are happening quickly and without informed public input. Please take a few minutes to urge your Congressional Representative to support the siting of energy corridors appropriately and cautiously - not in areas where they will harm wildlife, cultural sites, and the wilderness experience.
Take action by clicking here
What's At Stake BACKGROUND
The Energy Policy Act of 2005: Plans for Thousands of Miles of Pipelines and Powerlines
Using a little-known clause in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Administration is seizing an opportunity to once again prioritize oil and gas industry interests over wild land conservation. Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act requires the Secretaries of Interior, Energy, and Agriculture to designate corridors for oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission lines on federal lands. It calls for the Secretaries to make their designations quickly: energy corridors in the west must be named by August 8, 2007. The agencies must also expedite decisions on applications for construction of pipelines and facilities within the designated corridors. This not just a western issue: another clause in the Act - Section 1221 - directs the Department of Energy to designate "national interest electric transmission corridors" subject to another rushed process for approval. Disturbingly, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can override state decisions and allow industry to condemn private lands in the way of proposed corridors.
Power transmission is essential, but so is choosing an appropriate location for infrastructure like pipelines and power lines. The new energy corridors, which can be two-thirds of a mile wide or more, could significantly disrupt wildlife habitat, viewsheds, and cultural and historic sites.
Nor is there a requirement for agencies to thoroughly analyze environmental consequences or potential mitigation measures. Once designated, the Energy Policy Act also requires the agencies to rush approval of projects in the corridors, likely shortchanging environmental review.
Moving swiftly, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Forest Service have identified a preliminary set of corridors on public lands through which power transmission lines and oil, natural gas, and hydrogen pipelines will pass. Many proposed corridors may cross through or are adjacent to federal conservation areas. Among the special areas threatened with new pipelines or above-ground transmission lines across or along a boundary are Utah's Canyonlands National Park, various citizen-proposed wilderness areas in Utah, and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. In Arizona's Sonoran Desert National Monument, the proposed corridor would parallel the primary road through the Monument, creating an ugly blotch on the vast, unscarred desert landscape which so many visitors enjoy.
Congress Speaks Out About Energy Corridors
Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Sue Kelly (R-NY) are organizing their colleagues to speak out to Federal agencies in shared concern about misguided energy corridor designations. They are circulating for sign-ons a letter which cautions the Secretaries of Energy, Interior, and Agriculture to take a reasonable and legal approach to corridor designation - and to avoid the devastating effects of siting corridors in sensitive areas like National Parks and Wildlife Refuges.
Reps. Grijalva and Kelly urge that federal conservation areas be "off-limits" to new transmission infrastructure, that the agencies provide clearer maps showing the proposed corridors for public comment, and that corridors be concentrated in appropriate areas with appropriate environmental mitigation techniques.
You Can Help! TAKE ACTION
Please Contact Your Representative Today!
Please click here to ask your member of Congress to speak out for common sense and good process in the designation of new energy corridors. Ask him or her to join with Rep. Sue Kelly and Rep. Raúl Grijalva in requesting that agency leadership improve the short-sighted corridor placement process and keep energy infrastructure out of sensitive and spectacular places like National Parks. You can send the letter below - or, better still, take a moment to personalize it with your thoughts, experiences, and concerns.
Sample Letter Subject: Pipelines, transmission lines don't belong on America's wildest lands
Dear (Your Representative),
I'm writing because I believe it's important for America to site new energy corridors in areas where pipelines and transmission lines are least harmful to our most spectacular and special public lands.
Pursuant to Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture and Energy are proposing corridors where new energy transmission infrastructure would be built in 11 Western states. Some proposed corridors may be sited in, across, or along the perimeter of sensitive areas like National Parks, National Monuments, and Wildlife Refuges.
This is an issue relevant to all Americans, not just westerners, as Section 1221 of the Act also directs the Department of Energy to designate "national interest electric transmission corridors" with impacts for eastern states - and that designation process is equally flawed.
Representatives Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) are asking agencies to take a common sense approach to energy corridor designation. They have drafted a letter urging the agencies to:
* Determine where corridors are really needed and focus corridors in areas where there's a pressing need for power transmission due to congestion or where there are no other corridors already in existence;
* Not site energy corridors in the most sensitive public lands. National Parks, Wilderness, National Monuments, the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System, Wilderness, Forest Service roadless areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wildlife Refuges, and other specially designated conservation areas are not appropriate places for new energy corridors. Those designations - typically intended to protect resources such as great scenic views, wildlife habitat, water, historic and cultural sites - are fundamentally incompatible with new oil and gas pipelines, facilities, and power corridors.
* Require mandatory management practices to govern design, construction, and use of corridors. For example, in scenic areas, bury the transmission lines.
* Allow for informed public comment on proposed sites.
Please join your colleagues in asking the Administration to identify swaths of land where energy transmission infrastructure could be concentrated with the least harm to the environment. I urge you to sign the Kelly-Grijalva letter to the Secretaries of Interior, Agriculture, and Energy. It's possible to transport energy while also protecting the values of public lands, and that means keeping corridors out of places like Parks and Monuments.
I would appreciate your leadership and I look forward to your response. Sincerely,
[your name]
[your address]
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