Conservation group files lawsuit against Department of Energy over southwest energy corridor
On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Environmental Law Center today filed suit in federal court in the central district of California to challenge the Department of Energy's October 2007 designation of the Southwest National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor - a sweeping, 45-million-acre area that includes seven southern California and three Arizona counties - for failing to analyze the environmental impacts of the corridor.
'The Energy Department cannot turn southern California and western Arizona into an energy farm for Los Angeles and San Diego without taking a hard look at the environmental impacts of doing so,' said Amy Atwood, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. 'The Southwest Energy Corridor will have far-reaching environmental impacts that must be considered before moving forward.'
The Department of Energy designated the Southwest Corridor pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, allowing for 'fast-track' approval of utility and power line projects within the corridor, nullifying state and federal environmental laws, and enabling energy companies to condemn private land for new high-voltage transmission lines.
'The Energy Department must ensure that the environmental impacts of creating such an expansive electric transmission corridor are closely analyzed and documented before any designation takes effect,' said Megan Anderson of the Western Environmental Law Center, lead attorney on the case. 'By failing to do so, the Energy Department is giving inefficient, transmission-based electricity an unfair advantage over conservation and more locally-based energy production - an unwise choice that we cannot afford in this era of climate change.'
The 45-million-acre energy corridor includes millions of acres of protected federal and state lands in California and Arizona, including 3 million acres of national parks and national wildlife refuges such as the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, Sonoran Desert National Monument, Joshua Tree National Park, and Carrizo Plain National Monument. The vast corridor also includes the 21-million-acre California Desert Conservation Area; 750,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management national monuments; and a portion of the Las Californias, an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot that is home to hundreds of protected or rare species. Altogether there are nearly 7.5 million acres of federally designated wilderness, wilderness study areas, and citizen-proposed wilderness within the energy corridor. There are also at least 95 species that are listed as threatened or endangered with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.
The Center's suit is being filed as the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Piedmont Environmental Council are also preparing to challenge the Energy Department's designation of the Mid-Atlantic National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania under federal environmental laws.
The Center is being represented by Anderson and Matt Kenna of the Western Environmental Law Center, and Atwood of the Center. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the central district of California.
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