(Cross-posted at My Left Wing)
Take a good look at this picture -
- because you might not be able to see this kind of view for much longer, if the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management have their way:
Under orders from Congress to move quickly, the Department of Energy and 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 easements are likely to cross national parks, forests and military bases as well as other public land
Gee - I wonder why they would do that?
ExxonMobil, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric and others have proposed corridors in the state 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.
Elsewhere, routes near Moab, Utah, the Cascades and Rocky Mountains have been proposed, some up to five miles wide and 2,000 miles long.
(Canyonlands and Lake Mead also are on the list, by the way.)
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Here's a map of the California areas affected:
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Of course, this whole process has been transparent, right? Mmm, not so much:
Department of Energy officials declined to provide an internal working map of which corridors were under consideration, saying it would be released only after environmental review. At that point, a map will be released showing possible routes, including those recommended by the department, and the public will have a chance to comment.
"We don't want to confuse the public," said David Meyer of the department's Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
Can you believe that s**t? I'm surprised they didn't cite "national security," f'cryin' out loud, or "executive privilege" -- not that anyone would ever do that when it comes to the nation's energy policy.
Here's another shock: the sudden urgency in the process came about - guess when! - right after George W. Bush took office! And the energy lobby couldn't be happier!
"We're very encouraged," said Meg Hunt, lobbyist for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents utilities in the U.S. serving 71% of all consumers. She said designating corridors regionally had been in the works for 20 years but had repeatedly stalled when field staff in federal or state agencies didn't like particular projects.
- darn pesky federal agency staffers! -
"Shortly after President George W. Bush came into office, there was a renewed recognition that there was going to need to be a major build-out in transmission infrastructure to meet western needs," she said
Translation: "Shortly after the two oil men stole the election and were appointed to the White House, they tossed any pretense at environmental protection out the window and ordered full steam ahead on every oil, gas, mining and electrical project they could think of - and in case they missed any, they asked a bunch of industry lobbyists to form an Energy Task Force so they would be sure to cover all the natural-resource-exploitation bases. And f**k the national parks, forest, reserves and historic sites."
Exxon/Mobil? Si. Death Valley? No. Ooops - I forgot - heh, English only, por favor.
Of course, our esteemed administration is striving mightily to perform its due diligence in the face of pressing profit, er, I mean, energy requirements. But those reviews are so, so, so darn INCONVENIENT!
[Marny Funk, spokeswoman for Republicans on the Senate energy committee, said,] "Environmentalists use these reviews as a way to stall projects for years to keep them from ever being built."
Ah, yuh. These reviews are all about stalling - not about protecting our natural resources.
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. They want to get by with a lot of sloppy, dirty work," said Howard Wilshire, a retired U.S. Geological Survey scientist who for 20 years studied human effects on public lands.
He said that with an environmental study of the arid Southwest scheduled for the hot summer months, many species would not be documented because plants will have died back and animals will be underground. Wilshire said his studies and others on the effects of roads, power lines and other linear development across the Mojave found that endangered species such as the desert tortoise were killed during construction, and that the projects permanently fragmented and eroded critical habitat.
Although power lines appear to sail through the air, every 160-foot-tall pylon is built on a concrete pad with a spur road connecting to a longer maintenance road, creating an artificial barrier across the fragile desert floor. Wilshire said bulldozing trenches for pipelines had similar effects.
"We're talking about millennia, if ever, for recovery of an ecosystem," he said.
Crybaby. Obstructionist. Terrorist sympathizer. Hates the troops, and America.
Just like Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who doesn't like the fact that the federal government is usurping state authority in selecting corridor routes:
He said he would sue if necessary, depending on which corridors were picked.
"I'd rather not have to get to lawyering, but we may have to," he said. "Washington, D.C., is seldom helpful for those of us who live in the West, and this is another example."
Look - quit whining and get over it. Just remember the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, who said "government of the energy companies, by the energy companies and for the energy companies shall not perish from the earth."
He didn't mention whether the earth itself would perish, but that's a speech for another day.