Regarding your Aug. 8 article, “Clearing a path for
power,” as a veteran of a successful 11-year battle to stop a 345
KV power line from being built across the Valles Caldera National
Preserve in northern New Mexico, I know how complicated and
time-consuming stopping these power lines can be. Sadly, most large
new power lines currently planned are utterly unnecessary, but the
2005 Energy Act removes the public’s opportunity to point
that out and rescue landscapes from these huge, ugly industrial
developments. Our current system of electricity generation depends
on large corporations operating large coal and gas (and an few
nuclear) power plants, then distributing the electricity over great
distances on highly inefficient and expensive high-voltage lines.
The big corporations that build and run the coal-fired power plants
centralize their profits while externalizing the costs of their
operations to the environment and the public.
It’s
not too late for the public to prevent construction of most large
power lines by insisting that power generation happen on a state or
local level. Solar thermal power plants and wind farms are well
suited for this. Aggressive energy conservation and solar home
retrofits can obliterate the need for centralized power plants and
their sprawl of power lines.
The Energy Policy Act of
’05 is a regressive act that cuts out the public from much
decision-making and fosters undemocratic corporate control of our
energy future. The power-line corridor matter is but one ugly
extension of this already obsolete legislation.
Tom Ribe
Santa Fe, New
Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Keep power generation close to home.
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