ChimpCo Calling For 3,500-Foot "Energy Corridors" Across 11 States

[hatrack]

BOISE, Idaho - Environmentalists are expected to challenge proposed Western energy corridors where new electricity transmission lines and pipelines for natural gas, oil and hydrogen could one day ferry energy from wells or power plants to the region's cities. Plans unveiled Friday show corridors crossing 11 states and covering thousands of miles, stretching from Washington to Wyoming and Montana to California.

The West has seen unprecedented growth in oil and natural gas production, wind prospecting and plans for new coal-fired power plants in states including Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. In the 2005 federal energy bill, passed last August, Congress ordered these corridors to expedite upgraded and new electricity transmission facilities.

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Nada Culver, in The Wilderness Society's Denver office, said her group favors identifying swaths of land where energy transmission infrastructure could be concentrated in areas where it's least harmful to the environment. However, Friday's release of the low-definition maps left her scrambling to pinpoint exactly where the corridors are proposed. Culver also expressed concern about the proposed width of the corridors.

"The most obvious thing is we really need some better information on maps where these corridors are," said Culver, adding she's asking agencies for more detail. "It's very difficult for the public to figure out where these places are going to be, without a little more clarity of information."

The BLM's Powers said the 3,500-foot width is just a starting point, for analysis. The corridors could be much narrower at some points. "We would make the adjustments appropriately," Powers said.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13279979/

[hunter]

1. U.S. Natural Gas production peaked in 1973.

I think the odds are pretty good this is a simple land grab disguised as an energy program. For any sort of sustainable energy economy it seems more likely that long distance energy transfers will be reduced, not expanded.

[Ready4Change]

2. WTF?

More than half a mile wide for power lines?

Something ain't on the up and up.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. I smell stealth logging...

$10 says these "corridors" happen to go straight through dense, old growth forest that will "need clearing for development". :grr: