Public officials blast energy corridor process

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Four Navajo chapters will be affected by the West-Wide Energy Corridor: Huerfano, Nageezi, Ojo Encino and Torreon, including lands around NAPI.
Division of Natural Resources Executive Director Arvin Trujillo said that in reviewing the proposed locations, “It is apparent that in order to connect the initial placement of these corridors, pathways through the Navajo Nation will be needed.” The federal government must work through the Nation’s rights of way process, and should not expect Navajo to accommodate a corridor 3,500 feet wide, he said.

But the federal government failed to properly coordinate the West-Wide Energy Corridor designation process with state, local and tribal officials, and is currently proceeding without compliance with federal laws, according to witnesses testifying recently before a House subcommittee in Washington.

The Department of Energy and Bureau of Land Management are leading the effort to designate energy corridors on federal lands under Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

In January, DOE, BLM and other cooperating federal agencies conducted a hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement in Window Rock, where raised concerns about the feds’ failure to identify pathways showing where the corridor would connect with the Navajo Nation.

During an April 15 federal oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands and the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, witnesses alleged the process ignored state and local concerns, failed to accommodate renewable sources of energy, and failed to avoid protected lands across 11 Western states.

Though Navajo was not represented at the hearing, Chairman Charlie Vaughn of the Hualapai Tribe of Arizona stressed the importance of early consultation with tribes.
“For an agency to decide on a route before consulting with tribes to identify such properties and evaluate their importance is an invitation to failure. The present approach based on the federal agencies’ interpretation of what a consultative process is conveys the message that they will define the consultation process and they really don’t much care about tribes’ concerns.”

Art Goodtimes, a County Commissioner from San Miguel County, Colo., the county seat of Telluride, said there has not been meaningful consultation with the states or the tribes, “and I’m here to tell you that there has not been meaningful consultation with counties either.” Of the 159 counties to be impacted, only three have been granted cooperative status.

The 3,500-foot-wide energy corridor is designed to accommodate future oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission facilities. It would stretch 6,000 miles and cover nearly 3 million acres of public lands in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

Among the impacted areas are the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge on the Arizona/California border, Grand Staircase National Monument in Utah, New Mexico’s Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge and Arches National Park in Utah.

Joanna Prukop, New Mexico secretary of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources for the state of New Mexico, said that since a complete analysis of cumulative impacts is not being completed in the Draft PEIS, it will not be done later in the process.

Prukop said the concerns of the citizens of Placitas highlight the flaws in the process. “Through a Freedom of Information request, they were able to obtain a map showing the full route of the proposed corridor through Placitas, which would have significant effects on both the residents of this community and of nearby tribal lands.

Colorado’s Goodtimes said it is obvious that lands between the segments on DOE’s maps will have to become part of the corridors. “By not showing the likely paths of these corridors, the agencies are preventing affected people ... from understanding the nature or magnitude of these effects.”

Luke Johnson, deputy director of BLM and Joel Holtrop, deputy director of the National Forest Systems said in a joint statement that the need for reliable sources of energy drives the demand for energy infrastructure.

“We remain convinced that the advantages of designating corridors far outweigh the disadvantages. It ultimately results in a smaller footprint on the land we manage than if the siting for projects were handled on a case-by-case basis.”

In Fiscal Year 2007, the BLM and Forest Service received more than 1,200 applications for energy rights-of-way, with at least 15 of those for long-distance interstate energy transport projects.

They said the corridors identified in the Draft PEIS are the result of an intensive, two-year process. “We have consulted with governors, state agencies, and counties. ... We have a robust tribal consultation program and have engaged over 70 tribes,” they said.

David Whiteley, executive vice president of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said that nearly 14,500 miles of new transmission lines are proposed to be added nationwide over the next 10 years.

“Generally, state and local public policies do not recognize the interstate and international nature of the transmission grid. Regional benefits may seem too remote to offset local impacts. Yet reliability of the power grid in one state affects reliability in other states, due to the interconnected and interdependent nature of the grid.”