Old problems for new energy
Just like the fossil fuel industries, creating the “new energy economy” runs the risk of trampling sensitive natural areas.
Western governors, animated by President Obama’s goal of doubling renewable energy production in the U.S. within three years, have identified dozens of areas rich in “new energy” sources. However, they’re now facing some of the same “old energy” obstacles to getting the projects moving.
Their challenge risks creating a contradiction in which building environmentally friendly new-energy plants tramples sensitive natural areas.
We urge caution in this rush to go green. It would be a terrible shame to see efforts to harness the West’s wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energies create negative environmental impacts.
At its meeting in Park City, Utah, this week, the Western Governors’ Association unveiled a map of 36 so-called “renewable-energy hubs,” according to The Post’s Mark Jaffe.
Four of the hubs are in Colorado — three in the Eastern Plains would be good for wind, and one in the south-central section of the state would be attractive for solar.
The zones were picked with environmental considerations in mind, but many remain in areas with conservation challenges, and the governors expressed concerns about how to reasonably and effectively link up the remote sites with high-power transmission lines.
The lines need careful planning or, as Wyoming Gov. David Freudenthal put it, “my state will look like a plate on which you threw a whole bunch of spaghetti.”
As The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, hundreds of applications to build solar plants in the arid West are being delayed by the regulatory process. The Bureau of Land Management, already busy reviewing traditional energy applications on public lands, has more than 200 solar proposals on its to-do list.
The BLM is required to take into account environmental impacts and impacts on endangered species. Reviews are lengthy.
Companies are fearful that if the process continues to drag on — some have been waiting for years — they’ll miss out on qualifying for big grants from the stimulus money if they can’t begin construction by the end of 2010, as the stimulus bill requires.
Complicating things for the BLM is that the Southwest’s immense solar potential exists in areas that lack water. Solar plants need lots of water to cool turbines, and yet states like Nevada get mere inches of rain a year.
The Western governors met with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Jon Wellinghoff, and were promised that Interior would create special renewable-energy offices to speed reviews.
More detailed mapping of the areas is next on the governors’ list, Jaffe reports. The mapping will try to better analyze good fits for the renewable-energy hubs regarding transmission lines and avoiding sensitive wildlife areas.
We’re embarking on a promising new era. But our leaders must take every reasonable consideration to ensure that the harnessing of new energy is done properly.
19 June 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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- Fast track for wind in view; Energy secretary vows to expedite permitting
- Ritter lines up needs for wind, solar spurt
- Moving power: Lack of transmission capacity challenges renewable energy projects
- Salazar, Reid announce public lands initiative in Vegas
- Solar farms can do harm
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