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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Gateway West Transmission Line Proposal Not Ready for Prime Time -- by Ken Miller
By bbrailsford @ 2:53 PM :: 97 Views :: 0 Comments :: Clean and Renewable Energy, Action Alert!

At 1,100 miles long and with a price tag of $2 billion, give or take several million dollars, the proposed Gateway West transmission line that would begin near a Wyoming coal plant and end near Melba, Idaho, could be the biggest construction project proposed in the country today.

Assuming it ever gets built. The massive 500-kilovolt line and its 350-foot tall towers would be visible for miles in Idaho. Its developers, Boise-based Idaho Power and Salt Lake-based PacifiCorp, say the line would allow greater access and movement of wind and other renewable energy resources across Wyoming and Idaho to green energy-hungry markets in the Pacific Northwest and even California. But nobody’s really sure what the line would carry, and that’s just one of the biggest reasons groups like the Snake River Alliance are questioning whether the project should move forward based on the information provided by the utilities to federal agencies to date. That’s a particularly valid question given that we as utility customers will bear most of the costs – an estimated $2 million per mile.

The entire Gateway West transmission line review process has been fraught with concerns, particularly by local governments in Idaho, that they have been excluded from the process and that proposed routes for the line were being concocted without adequate local consultations. As reported in the Idaho Statesman on Jan. 14, “Farmers and ranchers from American Falls to Murphy told an Obama administration panel their own horror stories about learning of Gateway West Transmission routes across their land only after the line already had been proposed.”

In one of the big ironies involving the project to date, the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies held a daylong meeting in Boise on Jan. 13 to air a variety of issues about the project. That meeting was held as part of the ominously named “Gateway West Transmission Line Project Rapid Response Team for Transmission,” which the Obama administration created along with a handful of other transmission “rapid response teams” to help streamline the review process for big transmission projects.

Aside from the fact that “streamlining” big energy projects tends to raise concerns about corners being cut in the name of expediency, this Rapid Response initiative got off to a rocky start when the team came to Boise: The team’s meeting was closed to the media and to the public. The Alliance sought an explanation from BLM and its public-engagement consultant as to the decision to shut the public out, but received no response. Participating in that meeting was a who’s-who of government policy makers at all levels: Representatives from five BLM offices and two U.S. Forest Service offices; the two utilities proposing the project; representatives from the city of Kuna and also Cassia, Twin Falls, Power, Owyhee, and Elko counties; two tribes; the U.S. Air Force, Idaho Army National Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, and Environmental Protection Agency; the Idaho governor’s office, Office of Energy Resources, Fish and Game, State Historic Preservation Office, and Department of Parks and Recreation.

Topics for the invitation-only discussion included: (Ironically) the approach to public engagement; the list of permits required and the schedule and timelines for processing permit applications; the amount of non-federal land that the project would affect and views and roles of non-federal land owners; project need, including how and by whom it was identified, and whether the asserted need for the project is controversial; reasonable and feasible alternative routes; any potential “show-stoppers” or “fatal flaws” for the project; and other topics.

Despite the breadth of the discussions on such an important project, the federal government evidently felt the so-called government-to-government talks were so touchy as to justify keeping the public at bay. In our view, that’s getting the public participation part of this critical environmental review off to a rocky start.

The public comment period on the Bureau of Land Management’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for Gateway West closed last October. Agencies are now working on a final EIS (FEIS) to be released later this year. That study will presumably provide more details about where the line would be located and about its myriad environmental impacts. In our comments on the DEIS, the Alliance raised a number of concerns about unanswered questions in the environmental study.

Chief among those concerns was the “purpose and need” section of the study – a critical issue that must be addressed for a project such as this to move forward. As the Alliance said in its comments:

“For reasons that are perhaps understandable, proponents are vague in discussing what kinds of energy would be placed on this new transmission system. What we do know is that the eastern terminus of the line is the Windstar Substation at Glenrock, WY, which is also, not coincidentally, the home of proponent PacifiCorp’s four-unit Dave Johnston coal-fired generation complex. Idaho Power is not a participant in the Dave Johnston plants; its east side coal assets consist of its one-third participation (with PacifiCorp) in the Jim Bridger complex, also in Wyoming. While it is true that PacifiCorp’s Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) envision significant additions of wind power to its system, it must be presumed that much of the energy that would occupy these transmission lines would be a mixture of coal and wind and perhaps other unidentified resources such as natural gas or geothermal. The lack of information about whether this line will facilitate additional clean energy development or expanded fossil fuel generation makes it difficult to support this project at this stage.”

While the utility developers said the line is needed to relieve congestion that can occur on existing transmission lines in the region during certain times of the year, we also questioned whether a line this big is necessary to address new transmission needs, particularly given that it’s likely some coal plants in Wyoming may be targeted for early retirement – freeing up space on existing lines. Other concerns raised about the line include whether Idaho would actually benefit from the new transmission capacity, or whether it would simply provide the lands needed to build new transmission freeways to electricity markets farther west.

Other environmental groups have raised concerns about the impacts such a huge project might have for sage grouse and other plant and animal species. Farmers worry about how the big lines might impact their irrigation systems and other operations. Local governments are alarmed that their carefully crafted community development plans might be compromised by power lines passing nearby or over property.

To be clear: We’re not saying at this time that this project is unnecessary or that it is bad energy and environmental policy. And we’re not saying that we oppose all transmission projects, because in some cases new lines will be needed to import new renewable energy resources and to meet growing demand for electricity. What we are saying is that neither the utility developers nor the government agencies that assembled the DEIS have shown why the project is needed and how it can be developed in an environmentally responsible manner. Until that happens, it’s difficult to see how proponents can justify such a massive project that piles another $2 billion on the shoulders of utility bill-payers.

The government’s next comment period on Gateway West will be announced later this year after the final EIS is released and before the government issues its “record of decision.” We’ll be keeping you posted on the project’s progress as well as the next opportunities to weigh in with your opinions on Gateway West.

To review Gateway West planning documents, go to www.wy.blm.gov/nepa/cfodocs/gateway_west/index.html

Information can also be found at www.gatewaywestproject.com

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