Feds hear concerns about Western energy corridor plan
By Susan Montoya Bryan -- Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Placitas resident Gary Miles already has four pipelines running through his community north of Albuquerque and he fears the federal government's plan to designate more than 6,000 miles of energy corridors across the West will only make it worse.
''In one word, it really sucks,'' he said of the existing pipeline corridor through Placitas.
Miles was one of about two dozen people who spoke Jan. 24 at a public meeting on the federal government's plan to designate corridors for electricity transmission lines and oil, natural gas and hydrogen pipelines. Federal officials say that designating the corridors would help address the West's growing need for energy.
But critics at the meeting blasted the plan, saying the corridors would promote an energy policy based on fossil fuels rather than renewable sources and slice up pristine public lands across the region.
The proposed corridors were developed by the Bureau of Land Management and the departments of energy, agriculture, commerce and defense. Congress directed the agencies to identify corridors as part of the 2005 energy bill.
One of the chief complaints voiced during the Jan. 24 meeting was that the plan failed to consider what happens on state, private and tribal land. Critics said the maps show only disconnected lines and that those gaps should be filled in before the true impacts of the corridors can be measured.
Reid Bandeen, president of the Las Placitas Association, said his group recognizes the need for well-planned energy transmission systems in the West and elsewhere, but the proposed plan has what he calls a ''fatal flaw.''
''It really doesn't give us corridors, only segments of corridors and only on federal lands,'' he said. ''As such, the entire project is essentially kind of a giant exercise in false advertising. The incomplete and disconnected segments of the corridors presented in the plan will deliver zero additional energy.''
LaVerne Kyriss, federal energy corridors project manager with the Department of Energy, said Congress called on the agencies to designate corridors only on federal land and that states and tribal governments have their own processes for citing rights-of-way on their land.
''Our goal is to streamline and simplify the process on federal lands,'' she said after the Jan. 24 hearing. ''We would be overstepping our authority if we were doing anything on other lands.''
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Kyriss and other federal officials also heard from tribal officials, lawyers, conservationists, a University of New Mexico researcher, Sandoval County officials and even Las Cruces City Councilor Nathan Small.
Small said his southern New Mexico city is bordered by the Organ Mountains and one of the proposed corridors would slice through the picturesque mountains. Small said the mountains are one of the features that set Las Cruces apart.
In New Mexico, one corridor bisects the state from the northwest to the southeast corner. Corridors also run from Albuquerque to Las Cruces and from Las Cruces west to the New Mexico/Arizona state line.
The corridors also have caused concern with some of New Mexico's American Indian communities. Leaders from Zuni, Santa Ana and Zia pueblos complained that federal consultation with the tribes has been less than adequate.
''This process, in order to be fair to all concerned, should involve not just consultation - the opportunity to present these hollow statements - but actual working with the local governments and landowners concerned to assure that when the government puts the ends of corridors on either side of your land you are satisfied that the connecting line that inevitably has to exist there is not going to needlessly impact sensitive areas,'' said Richard Hughes, a lawyer who represents Santa Ana Pueblo.
And those areas on tribal land are quite abundant, he said.
Peter Pino, tribal administrator for Zia Pueblo, said the tribe supports the effort to identify energy corridors and make the process more efficient but the proposed width of the corridors about two-thirds of a mile - is too big. His tribe also is concerned about the potential impact on culturally and environmentally sensitive areas.
Kyriss said local federal land managers tried their best to talk with their constituents and learn about any sensitive areas that needed to be avoided. She also said not all tribes agreed to consult on the proposal.
Kyriss encouraged people to participate in the public comment period before it ends Feb. 14. Three other public meetings are planned, and the agencies are accepting written comments.
''The decision has not been made,'' Kyriss said. ''We're consulting, we're taking input. We need to hear what people's concerns are.''
The other states included in the western corridor plan are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
