Will the Wilderness Society stop the Smart Grid?

Secure power supply needed, but current processes have serious deficiencies    

To ensure a secure power supply, the United States must design a forward-looking electricity grid. Congress required the federal government to do so when it approved the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and the government has a responsibility to do it right.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) made a well-intentioned effort to fulfill its mandate to build such a grid under the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) and West-wide Energy Corridor provisions of the Energy Policy Act. Unfortunately, the government failed to do so in a way that respects public lands and local communities.

The Wilderness Society has closely followed both corridor planning processes. We’ve urged the government to ensure that these corridors do not cross ecologically and culturally important public lands and that they are finalized only when efforts to address needs through increased efficiency and distributed generation are exhausted. We’ve asked the DOE to promote renewable sources of energy and intensively consult with local governments and communities when deciding where the corridors should go.

Those leading this process have disregarded our requests.  Local elected officials, renewable industry representatives and conservation groups have all clamored for more involvement -- yet this administration continues to push on, ignoring the problems and lawsuits that continue to plague this reckless process.

The Wilderness Society recently sued the DOE because it failed to perform an environmental review of the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, violating the National Environmental Policy Act. The agency did not actually identify corridors, but two large regions of land encompassing national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges and other sensitive lands. We support putting electric transmission lines in the right places, but the agency’s oversight left us no choice but to sue.

The West-wide Energy Corridors are nearly as bad.  The lack of a proper environmental review, a rushed and largely ignored public comment process, and possible corridors in places such as California’s Joshua Tree National Park and Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument do not make for a forward-looking energy grid that will provide safe, secure energy for our nation.

There’s also plenty of evidence renewable sources of energy have been left out in favor of hard-wiring in more coal and fossil fuel burning power plants, and as an April 15 congressional hearing on the West-wide Energy Corridors revealed, local concerns, too, have been brushed aside. 

The Wilderness Society shares the vision of a modern, secure electricity grid for the benefit of future generations.  We just want to make sure they won’t need to sacrifice their communities, lands and health to get it.

Nada Culver is the Senior Counsel at the BLM Action Center for The Wilderness Society. 

   Nada Culver email address

   DOE web site on NIETC

Litigation Update

·         Additional Suits: In addition to the Wilderness Society’s appeal on the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, appeals have been filed by the states of New York (AG and PSC), New Jersey (AG and BPU), Pennsylvania (PUC and DEP), California (PUC), Arizona (Corporation Commission), and Virginia.

·         Other Parties:

1. Include the NY-based Citizens Against the Regional Interconnection, the VA-based Piedmont Environmental Council, the Southern Environmental Law Center, National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Parks Conservation Association, the Civil War Preservation Trust, and the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association. The Imperial Irrigation District in California has also filed an appeal.
2. A number of electric utilities and trade associations have also intervened in the case in the Court of Appeals, too. They are: PJM Interconnection, LLC, Southern California Edison Company, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, Edison Electric Institute, American Public Power Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Allegheny Energy, Inc., Monongahela Power Company, The Potomac Edison Company, West Penn Power Company, Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company, Path Allegheny Transmission Company, LLC, and Path West Virginia Transmission Company, LLC.

·         All of these actions are being consolidated in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit. 

·         Next Steps:  Parties will file briefs. The Wilderness Society expects opposing parties will ask the court to “stay” the effectiveness of the designation so that the various clocks that would permit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to take over permitting specific projects will not keep running while the court considers the legality of these actions.  This is especially pressing because parties such as Southern California Edison have already started meeting with FERC to make sure that their project is ready for approval as soon as possible under the NIETC process.

·         Possible Future Litigation: These appeals are in addition to a number of lawsuits that had already been filed in federal district court in Pennsylvania and California.  Expect more of those actions filed as the import of these designations and the risks to all types of property (public and private) become more apparent.  Also, the Senate has indicated that it will take up these corridors in upcoming oversight hearings on energy transmission, which could lead to congressional action.