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Sierra Club Joins Bipartisan Group of Congressmen In Opposing Transmission Line Corridors Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Repeal Section 1221 of EPACT 2005 Today Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope appeared with Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Mike Arcuri (D-NY), John Hall (D-NY), and Chris Carney (D-PA), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and numerous other environmental and historic preservation groups to speak out against the transmission line corridors designated last week by the Department of Energy (DOE) under the auspices of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Reps. Wolf and Hinchey have introduced bipartisan bills to repeal section 1221 of the law, which grants DOE and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) nearly limitless powers of eminent domain and exempts them from key environmental laws in designating so-called "National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors." Statement of Carl Pope "There were many, many reasons why the Sierra Club opposed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, but the sweeping powers granted to the DOE and FERC to designate "National Interest Electric Transmissions Corridors" were near the top of the list. Last week the DOE showed just how dangerous this nearly limitless authority is when, under intense pressure from the energy industry, it proposed the first two such corridors. They make a mockery of the word "corridor," as they include the entirety of the states of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey, along with substantial portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, and southern California. At this rate, the entire country could soon be deemed an essential electric transmission corridor. "This provision usurps the right of state and local governments to deny access to certain lands and areas based on local interests and values. In addition, it runs roughshod over laws meant to protect environmentally and historically sensitive areas such as Civil War battlefields from development. It also trumps the rights of property owners in the corridors, allowing for their lands to be seized via eminent domain and transferred to private corporations. Above all, backers of this provision believe that energy companies should be allowed to construct power lines and pipelines anywhere they see fit in order to increase their own profits, regardless of what’s in the public interest. "In the Northeast, new transmission lines would be used to ship power into the region produced from dirty, outdated coal-fired power plants in Appalachia and elsewhere. This undermines the important efforts of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is spurring new and innovative developments in the Northeast to increase clean energy supplies and combat global warming. It would also subject communities outside the region to the pollution, including toxic mercury, from power plants that would be supplying power to cities hundreds of miles away. "Instead of forcing new transmission lines on communities across the country, we can eliminate the need for them by increasing the energy efficiency of our schools, homes, factories, offices, and the appliances and electronics we use each day. And by modernizing our badly outdated electrical grid, we can make that sure more of the energy we already produce actually makes it to those homes, offices, and factories. "I am pleased that a bipartisan group in the House has introduced legislation to repeal this authority. This provision--never debated on the floor--tramples on our public lands, historically sensitive areas, private property rights, and the constitutional authority of states. We look forward to working with the Congress to right this wrong as quickly as possible." # # #
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