Earth Island Institute

The bi-weekly newsmagazine High Country News has long been one of my favorite publications. A journal “for people who care about the West,” as its tagline says, the News carries the kinds of stories you don’t find many other places — articles about, say, the importance of maintaining the Cowboy Myth, or a detailed piece about uranium contamination in Navajo country. As an Arizona native and a longtime California resident, I appreciate the News’ affection for the unique Western sensibility; as a reporter, I value its commitment to in-depth, long form journalism.

A great example is a recent article by Judith Lewis about the controversy surrounding a proposal to build new power lines to run renewable energy from the Mojave Desert to the LA region.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is eager to build an electricity transmission line from planned geothermal generators near the Salton Sea to its 4 million customers, who currently get about half of their energy from coal burning power plants.

Desert residents are vehemently opposed to the proposal. They say the construction of the transmission lines — which will run from 160-foot-tall steel towers, occupying a footprint 330 feet wide — will destroy the surrounding wilderness and threaten marginalized species such as the fringe-toed lizard and the endangered peninsular bighorn sheep. Mojave dwellers also say the plan is a throwback to age of Mulholland, when Los Angeles brazenly scoured the region for resources (especially water) to fuel its growth.

Lewis captures the nuances of the face-off brilliantly when she writes:

“Come out against a project that brings wind energy down from Wyoming … or moves electricity from large-scale solar installations to coal-dependent cities, and you come out against polar bears and in favor of cataclysmic drought, all to prevent a localized disturbance in your backyard. No matter how pristine that backyard, or how many rare species it contains, saving it can’t possibly trump saving the coasts from rising seas.”

Well said. Of course, the city, state, and federal agencies overseeing the project should do everything in their power not to send lines through Anza-Borrego State Park. And environmentalists should be on the lookout for any efforts to use the transmission lines, dubbed the “Green Path North” by LADWP officials, to carry electrons generated from coal, nukes, or natural gas. If the power lines are supposed to be green, then they should be carrying renewable energy.

But it’s hard not to think that some local activists have their priorities misplaced. One conservationist told Lewis, "No opening of any wilderness areas in this state to any energy corridors ever. Absolutely not."

According to Amy Atwood, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity: "It’s hard to see which Western constituency could possibly support this.”

Well, how about a constituency that recognizes that climate change is already dangerously altering Western ecosystems, contributing to droughts, wildfires, and shrinking and shifting habitats?

There’s no question it’s important to try to protect the lizards and the sheep. But if we decide that keeping power lines out of the desert is more important than shutting down coal plants, there may be no lizards or sheep to protect. Some opponents of the power lines, it appears, are missing the forest for the (Joshua) trees.

The transmission lines hullabaloo carries echoes of the debate a few years ago over whether to build wind turbines off of the Martha’s Vineyard coast.

I suppose that windmills might interrupt an ocean view. And I guess that some power lines could disrupt delicate desert ecosystems.

But the view of an acidic ocean and sight of a scorched desert landscape — both caused by climate change — will be a whole lot worse.

 

Comments

So custodians of the desert should just bend over and take it from the big cities “for the greater good?” I think NOT! Here are some alternatives to destructive projects such as LADWP plans:

1) LOCAL power generation. Decentralized is more eefficient, requires less transmission, and is less vulnerable to accidents or sabotage. The sun shines in Los Angeles. The wind blows in Los Angeles. NIMBYism is alive and well in Los Angeles; they want others to bear the true cost of their greed.

2) ENCOURAGE conservation. Los Angeles hasn’t made much of an effort to do this.

3) UPGRADE existing infrastructure rather than adding more 20th-century technology for a 21st-century problem. Los Angeles could double the carrying capacity of existing power transmission lines by upgrading the wires with new, proven technology.

4) USE EXISTING POWER CORRIDORS rather than new ones. Preserves (private and public) and wilderness areas were set aside to be protected in perpetuity—not until an energy conglomerate wants them. If these lands are taken, NOTHING is safe.

By Austin on 2008 06 18

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