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from the article: > The updated roadmap... focuses on lands within 10 miles of existing or planned transmission lines and moves away from lands with sensitive

from the article: > The updated roadmap... focuses on lands within 10 miles of existing or planned transmission lines and moves away from lands with sensitive resources.

megaman821 3y ago
That is nice, but we all know that does nothing to stop a decade or more of lawsuits. The Government could preempt all those lawsuits now by pre-clearing the areas so they can start building as soon as possible.
- barney54 3y ago
  Congress could preempt those laws, but the administration itself cannot. They can expedite permitting, but there will still be lawsuits.
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  They probably couldn't feasibly pre-clear this amount of land even if they wanted to. There are almost certainly resources (e.g. human remains and cultural sites) somewhere in that area that not only does the BLM not have authority over, but for which the existing legislation is basically Congress saying "Not within in our authority".
  - serial_dev 3y ago
    I was very confused about Black Lives Matter's role here... BLM in this context refers to bBureau of Land Management.
- glenstein 3y ago
  Being able to challenge the construction of transmission lines is a good thing, not a bad thing. The largest unfragmented forest east of the Mississippi was just carved in half by a new transmission line in Maine, when there were alternative options that would not have done so. It just so happened that the most environmentally harmful option was nevertheless the most profitable, so they rammed it through. And while I don't like the outcome, I like that we had the ability to challenge it. An under-appreciated aspect of corridor construction has been utilities being able to use state level regulatory capture to ram through projects that contribute to forest fragmentation. Being able to challenge these for legitimate purposes has to be balanced against the equally legitimate problem of NIMBY obstructionism of corridor construction. But my feeling is that utilities aren't interested in a balance, they are interested pushing the NIMBY narrative to achieve a complete blank checks to circumvent environmental reviews altogether.
  - megaman821 3y ago
    I don't want to ram through anything and everything, but why not have the BLM conduct studies now? They can pick the most promising, lowest environment footprint corridors. If a pre-approved corridor works, use it, if not go through the normal process.
  - abdullahkhalids 3y ago
    What are the environmental impacts of a transmission line through a forest?
    - tstrimple 3y ago
      I didn't know either. Quick google for "forest fragmentation" led me to: https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/forest-fragmentation https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/forest-fragme... > Edge effects are even more complicated. They alter growing conditions within the interior of forests through drastic changes in temperature, moisture, light, and wind. Put simply, the environment of the adjacent non-forest land determines the environment of the forest fragment, particularly on its edges. This triggers a cascade of ill effects on the health, growth, and survivability of trees, flowers, ferns, and lichens and an array of secondary effects on the animals that depend on them. Ecologists suggest that true interior forest conditions – you know, where it’s hard to hear cars and lawnmowers and it remains cool, shady, and downright damp even during a three-week drought – only occur at least 200-300 feet inside the non-forest edge. > And so a circular forest island in a sea of non-forest would have to be more than 14 acres in size to include just one acre of such interior forest condition. Put differently, reports indicate that the negative habitat effects of each residential building pocket within a forest radiate outward, affecting up to 30 additional acres with increased disturbance, predation, and competition from edge-dwellers. This may not matter to generalist species like deer, raccoons, and blue jays, which may actually benefit from fragmentation, but it is hell on interior-dependent species like salamanders, goshawks, bats, and flying squirrels. The smaller the remnant the greater the influence of external factors and edge effects. A wise person once likened it to ice cubes: the smaller ones melt faster.
  - devilbunny 3y ago

from the article: > The updated roadmap... focuses on lands within 10 miles of existing or planned transmission lines and moves away from lands with sensitive resources.

megaman821 3y ago

That is nice, but we all know that does nothing to stop a decade or more of lawsuits. The Government could preempt all those lawsuits now by pre-clearing the areas so they can start building as soon as possible.

barney54 3y ago
Congress could preempt those laws, but the administration itself cannot. They can expedite permitting, but there will still be lawsuits.
AlotOfReading 3y ago
They probably couldn't feasibly pre-clear this amount of land even if they wanted to. There are almost certainly resources (e.g. human remains and cultural sites) somewhere in that area that not only does the BLM not have authority over, but for which the existing legislation is basically Congress saying "Not within in our authority".
- serial_dev 3y ago
  I was very confused about Black Lives Matter's role here... BLM in this context refers to bBureau of Land Management.
glenstein 3y ago
Being able to challenge the construction of transmission lines is a good thing, not a bad thing. The largest unfragmented forest east of the Mississippi was just carved in half by a new transmission line in Maine, when there were alternative options that would not have done so. It just so happened that the most environmentally harmful option was nevertheless the most profitable, so they rammed it through. And while I don't like the outcome, I like that we had the ability to challenge it. An under-appreciated aspect of corridor construction has been utilities being able to use state level regulatory capture to ram through projects that contribute to forest fragmentation. Being able to challenge these for legitimate purposes has to be balanced against the equally legitimate problem of NIMBY obstructionism of corridor construction. But my feeling is that utilities aren't interested in a balance, they are interested pushing the NIMBY narrative to achieve a complete blank checks to circumvent environmental reviews altogether.
- megaman821 3y ago
  I don't want to ram through anything and everything, but why not have the BLM conduct studies now? They can pick the most promising, lowest environment footprint corridors. If a pre-approved corridor works, use it, if not go through the normal process.
- abdullahkhalids 3y ago
  What are the environmental impacts of a transmission line through a forest?
  - tstrimple 3y ago
    I didn't know either. Quick google for "forest fragmentation" led me to: https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/forest-fragmentation https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/forest-fragme... > Edge effects are even more complicated. They alter growing conditions within the interior of forests through drastic changes in temperature, moisture, light, and wind. Put simply, the environment of the adjacent non-forest land determines the environment of the forest fragment, particularly on its edges. This triggers a cascade of ill effects on the health, growth, and survivability of trees, flowers, ferns, and lichens and an array of secondary effects on the animals that depend on them. Ecologists suggest that true interior forest conditions – you know, where it’s hard to hear cars and lawnmowers and it remains cool, shady, and downright damp even during a three-week drought – only occur at least 200-300 feet inside the non-forest edge. > And so a circular forest island in a sea of non-forest would have to be more than 14 acres in size to include just one acre of such interior forest condition. Put differently, reports indicate that the negative habitat effects of each residential building pocket within a forest radiate outward, affecting up to 30 additional acres with increased disturbance, predation, and competition from edge-dwellers. This may not matter to generalist species like deer, raccoons, and blue jays, which may actually benefit from fragmentation, but it is hell on interior-dependent species like salamanders, goshawks, bats, and flying squirrels. The smaller the remnant the greater the influence of external factors and edge effects. A wise person once likened it to ice cubes: the smaller ones melt faster.
- devilbunny 3y ago