Proposed Federal EIS Plan

MONTANA, Jan 31 (Neo Natura) - A public discussion on the proposed federal EIS project, a plan to designate energy corridors on federal land in 11 Western states, drew few comments at a public meeting in Helena, but for the most part was supported from representatives of organizations who attended.

Use this form to submit comments on the Energy Corridor Draft Programmatic EIS. All comments received or postmarked by Thursday, February 14, 2008 will be considered. You can also view the proposed corridor area.

Most favored a route for oil and natural gas pipelines, power lines and distribution facilities that follows U.S. 287 from Townsend to Three Forks, then westward toward Butte and Anaconda and splitting to run north and south along the inter-states.

Another favored route could run from Townsend across Interstate 15 and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, then north to Garrison and continue into Idaho.

“I’m bringing 200 petition letters asking for either the Garrison/Milltown or Townsend/Three Forks/Milk Creek routes,” Linda Sather, Anaconda-Deer Lodge County commissioner said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We want this in our county. We welcome it and support it wholeheartedly.”

But others are wary of the corridors, saying they could run through roadless areas. In New Mexico, critics said the map of the proposed corridors show only disconnected lines and that connecting the corridors would involve pipelines and power lines crossing state, tribal or private land. They said the connecting routes should be determined before the true impacts of the corridors can be measured.

Throughout the West, the proposed corridors cross through 12 national parks, monuments or recreation areas and three wildlife refuges. That’s down from the initial plan that involved 29 national parks, monuments or recreation areas; 15 wild-life refuges; and 58 wilderness areas.

“Although the Energy Department has made significant improvements in their proposed corridor designations, the proposed corridors still lack thorough consideration of the likely damage to federal lands and other places,” said Nada Culver, who has tracked the process for the Wilderness Society since it began. “In Montana and elsewhere, the Energy Department needs to come up with alternatives to minimize the number of corridors and maximize use of renewable energy, and it should include firm requirements to limit all projects to designated corridors.”

The energy corridors are part of an energy bill passed in 2005 to provide more energy to Western states and shorten the length of time it takes the energy industry to gain approval to run pipelines and power lines.

Once projects are proposed for the corridors, they would undergo additional environmental review before permits were issued and rights-of-way granted.

Jeff Barber with the Montana Environmental Information Center said the center supports the idea of energy corridors, but would like them placed within existing transmission routes and, if possible, to limit the export of Montana power.

“If it’s a coal plant exporting power, that’s not a direction we want to go,” Barber said. “But if it’s wind generation we want to export, that’s a different situation.”

Overall, the corridors include 6,055 miles over almost 3 million acres in Montana, California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico and Arizona.

Brian Mills, Department of Energy environmental protection specialist, said the corridors would be about 3,500 feet wide — although that could vary — with 3,700 miles in existing corridors’ right of way.
In Montana, the proposed corridors cover 102 miles over 42,000 acres of federal land.