San Miguel County to testify before Congress on energy corridor

TELLURIDE — Congress is scheduled to hear from San Miguel County Tuesday when a commissioner will testify that federal agencies did not sufficiently notify the county regarding the West-wide Energy Corridor process.

The commission maintains the federal government failed to consult with it on a 3,500-foot proposed corridor segment that would pass through San Miguel County and bisect Gunnison Sage-grouse habitat. This consultation is required of the government through the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Under the West-wide energy project, proposed corridors for oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission and distribution facilities, would cross Federal lands in 11 western states, including Colorado.

"Their notice was deficient and their map was deficient and that's what I'm testifying in Washington," said San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes. He will speak before the House Natural Resources Committee, subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

Goodtimes noted a series of concerns in his testimony, including the lack of alternatives in the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and the project's lack of consideration for connections between corridors that may impact non-federal lands.

San Miguel County did receive some notice on the project, though they said it significantly lacked detail. Commissioners said they found out about the plan Feb. 13 from a third party. However they submitted a two-paragraph comment to the U.S. Department of Energy dated July 10, 2006 on a preliminary draft corridor map.

Goodtimes acknowledged this comment. He said it was cursorily written in response to deficient notice. The county was not clear what was really happening from the letter-sized map of 11 states supplied by the Department of Energy, he said.

BLM spokesperson Heather Feeney said the bureau's local managers adjusted the corridors in part to address the concerns the county expressed in 2006. But the county said any adjustments made were not clear in maps provided by BLM.

In its 2006 response, the commissioners stated in part: "The area mapped in San Miguel County, Colorado appears to be through the area referred to as Wright's Mesa which is a rural area, with a growing population. The Board would prefer the siting to the west of this area, towards the Slickrock area."

As the only federal agency required to invite local government groups to become Cooperating Agencies, BLM drafted an invitation letter in Washington September 2005, said Feeney. She said these letters were mailed to potential cooperators by BLM state offices in early October 2005. San Miguel County has no record of such a letter, Goodtimes said.

The 11-State planning area includes 414 counties total; corridors proposed in the Draft PEIS are located in 159 of counties. Three Wyoming counties, two California state agencies and one Indian Tribe in Idaho accepted the invitation to become Cooperating Agencies, Feeney said.

"We do not know why 156 counties did not respond to the invitation to become cooperating agencies," she said. "Most counties realize their issues are local and prefer to work with the project on that basis."

Commissioners plan to meet with DOE, BLM and Forest Service officials to talk about the West-wide Energy Corridor at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 23 in Telluride’s Miramonte Building.

Goodtimes said this meeting is a positive step, but not how the process, as described by Congress, should have worked. In his Tuesday testimony, he will ask that federal agencies generate new proposals and "engage in conducting real and meaningful consultation" with local governments.

For more information on the West-wide Energy Corridor PEIS, go to: corridoreis.anl.gov/

Contact Lisa Huynh at lisah@montrosepress.com