Elisabeth Rosenthal is a reporter and blogger on environmental issues for The New York Times.
Thứ Hai, 20 tháng 2, 2012
News Analysis: Drawing the Line at Power Lines
But, in the popular mind, none of these concerns stuck like the vision of a big metal pipe full of thick crude coursing under America’s pristine heartland. When President Obama himself finally denied the Keystone XL its permit last month, he focused on the 1,000-mile pipeline’s passage through the delicate Sand Hills and the Ogallala Aquifer, suggesting he might accept an alternative route. Officials of TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline builder, seemed perplexed by the traction this particular argument gained, as they toured the United States late last year trying to salvage their ailing $7 billion project. Displaying a map showing the intricate web of pipelines that already crisscross the United States, they noted that the country has 2.5 million miles of pipeline. TransCanada’s prior oil pipeline into the United States — smaller than Keystone XL, but not small by any stretch of the imagination — had elicited barely a murmur of protest. As energy people, the TransCanada executives were perhaps being overly rational about a reality that Americans seem determined to forget: Large-scale energy is typically produced in remote places and inevitably needs to be transported to the populated areas where it is used. That is a fact whether the energy comes in the form of “dirty” traditional fuels like coal or oil, or in the form of cleaner natural gas. It is true even if it comes in the guise of “green” electricity, generated by the sun or wind. There are pipelines, trains, trucks and high-voltage transmission lines. None of them are pretty, and all have environmental drawbacks. But if you want to drive your cars, heat your homes and watch TV, you will have to choose among these unpalatable options. Practically speaking, there is no energy equivalent of wireless. Indeed, some of the most pitched energy battles being fought today involve not oil pipelines but “next generation” energy transport: the expansion of pipe networks for natural gas and the high-voltage transmission lines that connect large-scale wind and solar farms to population centers. And these systems are expanding rapidly as the United States shifts away from traditional fossil fuels. “You can’t get around this transportation problem, but people don’t want to acknowledge that — it’s a really big problem that we’ll have to face,” said Michael A. Levi, a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The more you move to transmission lines that cross lots of states, the more you’ll have the same trouble as you did with Keystone XL.” Indeed, shortly after President Obama put a halt to Keystone XL last month, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy of Jersey City called on the president to intervene to stop a natural gas pipeline planned for northern New Jersey. Mr. Healy called the pipeline, intended to transport natural gas from rural Pennsylvania to downtown Manhattan, “far more insidious” than Keystone, citing concerns about safety and damage to New Jersey’s ecosystems. In central Texas, a coalition of environmentalists, conservationists and landowners is similarly fighting against the planned construction of high-voltage power lines to bring electricity from the huge wind farms of West Texas to the urban corridor of Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. “This is beautiful country with huge heritage ranches, amazing biodiversity, endangered species and the headwaters of important rivers,” said Christy Muse, executive director of the Hill Country Alliance, a group dedicated to preserving the resources and heritage of central Texas. “A lot of people jumped on the renewable bandwagon — it’s a sexy agenda. But this is a special landscape, and does this minimal contribution to the grid outweigh the degradation these lines impose?” Her group wants power companies to use smaller towers, employ routes that parallel highways rather than cut across pasture and better compensate landowners. Opponents of transmission lines worry about the effect of huge latticed towers on wide-open vistas, as well as the impact of electromagnetic fields on wildlife and human health. Studies show an increased incidence of some cancers in children who have been exposed to electrical fields typical of those close to the lines. But energy policy experts say that the United States must find a way to erect the infrastructure it needs to move power — despite the obstacles and objections. “There is always risk associated with the transport of energy, but you have to do it,” said Jackie Forrest, a senior energy analyst with IHS Cera in Calgary, Alberta. “You try to minimize the risk.”
