Desert Homestead Column by Bart Santello (as Published in the Connection Newspaper, Nov 2003)
Public comment against Tucson Electric Power’s (TEP) proposed transmission line route through southern Arizona has grown to several thousand pages. The “Western Route” takes the power lines through roadless areas of the Coronado National Forest (east of Arivaca), where approximately 191 line-towers, and over 20 miles of new roads could be constructed in the forest for this project. Thanks to all those who responded to the newly-released Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) by letter, email and at the DOE public hearings last month in September. The DEIS is available at all local libraries. Our information web-site on this issue is www.StopTheWesternRoute.Blogspot.com.
The Department of Energy (DOE) must decide whether to issue a “Presidential Permit” that would allow TEP to erect 140’ line towers through the biologically-rich and wilderness-like Coronado National Forest south into Mexico; or, they can declare “No Action” effectively stopping the project. Likewise, the U.S. Forest Service can either approve the route and amend its ‘Land and Resource Management Plan’ accordingly, or, declare “No Action” and deny TEP a ‘Use Permit’ through the forest.
If we look back at the origins of this proposal, TEP found a way to slip-in a larger 345 kV transmission line from the Arizona Corporation Commission’s (ACC) Order 62011, which mandated that only a small backup 115 kV power line between Sahuarita and Nogales be provided to improve reliability. What ultimately transpired was that the ACC passed the (political) buck and handed the Department of Energy a can-of-worms, by approving a transmission line proposal larger than the ACC itself had asked for. Is it just coincidence that just after the ACC’s granted the route to TEP, the then Governor flew to Mexico with the state’s leading utility executives to promote a cross-border energy sale? To quote “The Arizona Republic” from January 17, 2002 (14 days after the ACC’s decision) “Gov. Jane Hull and a group of Arizona power executives will be in Mexico City next week to lobby for permission to build high-voltage connections on the border and sell electricity to the Mexican power grid.”
TEP’s transmission line scheme was proposed several years back during the ‘Enron era’, when the new excitement was to trade energy over the grid. Utilities with power lines can charge a toll for electricity transmission across the ‘grid’. To maximize the investment, the utility must encourage and promote electrical use. This is the most environmentally damaging consequence of the proposed subject transmission line, other than the construction itself. To quote the late Jacques Cousteau while he was studying effects of development in the Amazon: “Where power lines go, industry follows.” Power lines will lead to the eventual building of power plants and heavy industry across the Mexican border, which all will be connected. According to a Greenpeace study, the 600 megawatt Sempra Energy Mexican power plant now on-line in Baja, just south of the US border, will generate 180 tons of Carbon Monoxide emissions (Mexico has no Carbon Monoxide limits) and 200 tons of Sulfur Dioxide (Mexico allows twice the US levels) annually. In addition, there are approximately 20 other power plants being proposed along the US border along California, Arizona and Texas, encouraged by the current administration.
Should TEP provide power to Mexico as they propose, it would necessitate using resources (fuel, water, air emissions) from the United States, in order supply a foreign country with power. Thus, a corporation will profit from the use of US natural resources and impact our air quality. One corporation should not profit against the will of the people at the expense of the environment (which in this case includes our Coronado National Forest). If we look at the biggest companies from the industrial era, most have made their fortunes off America’s natural resources. Whether it was land grants to the railroads; mining claims on government owned land, or oil drilling in environmentally-sensitive areas. This process continues today, and is demonstrated in the fact that TEP can propose transmission line routes all over the map and then it becomes the annoying and unfair burden of the American citizen, to repeal or modify these damaging proposals. Industry access to America’s natural resources is treated by corporations, more like a ‘right’, than a ‘privilege’. This is because industry, over the years, has guided the pen of government legislation. The result is a pro-industry maze of laws, designed to wear-down the American citizen who tries to understand these laws, make changes and defend private property and public lands. Again; the current administration is now working to enact laws that restrict or remove public participation on these issues.
Many of the corporate officers that dream-up these projects (like building power lines), usually cash-in their chips and move-on, by the time these projects go online. Like professional stock traders, they buy on the rumor and sell on the news. It will be the people living around these power lines, or hiking in the spoiled forest areas that will have to live with the snap-crackle-and-pop, where they hoped would be silence. Back-country photographs will be marred by towers. Those who hiked the day to get-away will come across these power lines in the national forest and be sadly reminded that places of solitude are not respected.
The DOE, US Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management’s decision should be evident and clear: And that is to vote “No-Action” and reject the “Western Route.” The reason is simple: There are many other economically viable alternatives to provide backup power to Nogales and other more environmentally-friendly energy alternatives available. With regards to transmission lines into Mexico, TEP (a publicly-traded company) should not expect its rate-payers to finance high-risk explorations into foreign energy markets. TEP should not be allowed to profit at the expense of the public’s Coronado National Forest, simply to boost its stock price to satisfy shareholders. Further, the Mexican government has not even committed to any level of participation to this international interconnect concept.
We the American people really have no idea what’s going on nationwide with our energy and electrical systems. Vice President Dick Cheney has never released the documents containing backroom dealings behind the administration’s current National Energy Policy (even though at least three district and/or federal courts have ordered him to do so.) Also Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has declared that investigation results into the cause of the recent blackouts in the northeast will be kept secret from the public. This is unprecedented and unconstitutional. Energy issues are directly related to the United States being involved in wars, and energy is the cornerstone of our foreign policy which comes back to haunt us in the form of terrorism.
Many citizens have expressed a sense that Washington’s decisions and actions on America’s energy future, are unfolding too fast; that there is no coherent plan; and the impact on future generations is not being considered. It is like someone else has hijacked our future. Whose dream are we living anyway?
