Public land agencies drafted a plan to create energy transmission routes across 11 states in the West, and in San Miguel County they are trying to take a familiar path. The route, which stretches from the Lone Cone Road saddle, across Naturita Canyon and into Disappointment Valley, was the same one denounced by county commissioners 20 years ago when it was proposed by an energy cooperative.
The proposed route traversing our county represents 36.7 miles and would be 3,500 feet wide, with the ability to transmit multiple types of energy, like electricity, oil, gas or hydrogen. Statewide, the plan includes 420 miles of routes across public lands.
“Basically the Feds want to site a major utility corridor along the same Naturita Canyon that local enviros tried to get designated as wilderness recently,” said San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes.
Goodtimes said that when the Colorado-Ute Electrical Transmission and Generation Coop, which no longer exists, presented the same corridor to then-commission Fred Ellerd two decades ago, he was “outraged that the line across the county girdled its middle and marred the scenic mesas on Oak Hill and around the Gurley.”
This week commissioners were no happier about the corridor proposal.
According to the comment letter the Board of Commissioners sent about the drafted plan, it was difficult to address the impacts of the proposed corridor because so little information was provided in the plan. Still, they noted that the corridor bisects land occupied by the Gunnison Sage Grouse. The animal is the subject of conservation efforts and its listing status under the Endangered Species Act is pending litigation in federal court.
When local environmental advocates tried to get Naturita Canyon included in Sen. John Salazar’s proposal to protect Dolores and McKenna peaks and other wilderness areas in the region, local ranchers and residents balked at the idea, and the canyon was dropped from the plan.
“The ranching community was not at all in favor of the idea,” said Goodtimes. “I think it (the inclusion of Naturita Canyon) caught everybody by surprise. It was a function of moving too fast. I think we all want the area to stay the same. Unfortunately, if we don’t take any action that may not happen.”
In the same way the community was caught off-guard by the proposal to preserve the canyon, the commissioners were surprised by the West Wide Energy Corridor plan that proposed to cross it and other scenic parts of western San Miguel County.
Goodtimes said that the county was “completely blind-sided by this project,” and spoke out against it at a National Association of Counties meeting in D.C. of entities in the Western Interstate Region.
His objection was noted by a Bureau of Land Management representative, Kate Winthrop, and the agency is affording San Miguel County the opportunity to propose an alternate route. While Goodtimes opposes the current proposed route, he said he recognizes the necessity of having a means to transport energy.
“Energy corridors are probably a necessity, if we continue the comfortable but unsustainable energy consumption curve per capita in the U.S. And even if we were somehow able to figure out how to harness wind, solar, and geothermal sources, under the current distribution system, we'd still need grid transport,” said Goodtimes. “But I'm not at all pleased with this federal process.”