Guest Column
Working Together, the West Can Lead the New Energy Economy
Pilot projects on brownfields, gravel pits, dumps and isolated BLM land bolster the region's energy advantage.By Craig Cox, Executive Director of Interwest Energy Alliance, Guest Writer, 8-23-10
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The West, with its wealth of wind, solar, geothermal and other clean, renewable energy resources, is poised to lead the nation toward a new energy future. But achieving that vision will require continued collaboration and a balanced approach that offers tremendous new economic and environmental benefits.
Recently, Sen. Harry Reid, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a pilot solar project on federal land in Nevada. This is a great example of a good project in a good place. The federal agencies, state and local governments, utilities and other stakeholders agreed to site the project on a so-called “brownfield,” a place that has already been disturbed. In this instance, the site had been used for nuclear testing; the Department of Energy now plans to develop and test innovative solar energy projects there.
With the support of industry, conservationists and local and federal government, brownfields are also being considered as potential sites for new renewable energy projects in Arizona. Putting projects on land that has already been impacted, such as landfills, abandoned airfields and mine lands, gravel pits, trash dumps and other isolated Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in urban areas, is an approach consistent with Secretary Salazar’s commitment to responsible energy development.
We can make smart decisions that keep renewable and transmission projects on track by doing the hard work upfront, and ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table. This avoids costly delays and lawsuits that undermine industry confidence, allows preservation of the environment and creation of new jobs and helps to protect consumers against the costs of coming restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
The challenge now in Nevada is figuring out how to transmit power from the solar project to residents in a way that is cost-effective but also environmentally-friendly. Again, with collaboration, it can be done.
I serve on a West-wide task force looking at transmission planning and siting issues. Since new transmission capacity is essential for most new energy development, it is becoming a priority for states nationwide. At the table with me are federal government agencies, state agencies, conservation organizations, energy corporations and consumer groups. We agree that new transmission must be planned collaboratively and proactively, so that the fewest possible new high-voltage lines can provide the most benefits for residents while permitting the many benefits of new renewable energy production to be realized most effectively.
Secretary Salazar has proposed fast-tracking several transmission projects in Nevada, Idaho and California, as well as two dozen solar, wind and geothermal projects across the West. Decisions about these new clean energy investments will have large-scale and long-lasting impacts on our environment and our economy. The Gulf oil spill is an important reminder that we need to take steps to protect our natural resources and communities as we consider where to locate new energy developments and transmission lines. Mistakes made in haste today can compromise the economic return on our investment tomorrow.
Working together is the best way to make sure we get new renewable and transmission projects right from the start. By bringing industry together with federal and state government, conservationists and local stakeholders, that vision is becoming a reality—advancing the West’s competitive advantage as an international leader in the new energy economy.
Craig Cox is executive director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, which operates in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming.
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Comments
http://1bog.org/
It's called One Block Off The Grid.
It is truly tragic to contemplate the impact this will have on the Southwest's deserts. If the government would make the kind of commitment it's made to Industrial Solar instead to point-of-use solar installations in the built environment, we could have much sounder, cheaper, faster, and less environmentally harmful solar power generation....without the nasty thousands of miles of transmission lines and the endless fields of mirrors.
You can learn a lot about this issue and the very real, imminent impacts of industrial solar at these web sites:
Take a look at http://faultine.org
and http://basinandrangewatch.org
Mickey, I admire your skill with the acronyms, but in this particular instance it's NIMBYism that's driving the siting of Wildland Industrial Solar. Those of us opposed to it generally want solar energy production *literally* in our backyards, on our rooftops, shading our parking lots and atop our stores and schools. It's the "out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality that promotes inefficient, wasteful, and massively taxpayer-subsidized industrial solar plants in the old growth desert.
You are being juvenile and you have obviously not even looked anything up. Even the solar developers admit their projects will have huge environmental impacts on the desert. It is sad and obvious that the people who want to play mouthpiece for the green economy do not have the coomon sense to educate themselves on basic facts.
Take the Blythe Solar Power Project. Huge project, projected at a scale that has never even been attempted. Over 200 cultural sites will be destroyed. 2 to 3,000 acres of desert ironwood woodland will be removed. The project will need to take 700 acre feet of water from an overdrawn Colorado River basin. Look at any of these projects and tell me there are few impacts. Mickey, you need a lot of work!