"Enviros Sue Over Energy Transmission Across Federal Lands"

"A coalition of environmental groups is suing federal agencies in an effort to change the location of corridors to transmit energy across Western lands.

The environmental groups -- including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Wilderness Society, as well as several Western environmental groups -- say that the corridors, which were designated in January by the Bush administration, are convenient for moving electricity generated by coal plants and other fossil fuels, but do little to facilitate the production of renewable energy on public lands.

'These are a product of a fossil fuel past,' said Carl Zichella, the director of Western renewables projects for the Sierra Club, in an interview.

The complaint was filed on Tuesday in a federal district court in San Francisco. It names as defendants several federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior, as well as its subsidiary, the Bureau of Land Management; the Department of Energy; and the Department of Agriculture and its subsidiary, the Forest Service."

Kate Galbraith reports for the New York Times July 8, 2009.

See Also:

"Groups Sue To Stop Bush Plan for Western Energy Corridors" (Salt Lake Tribune)

"Groups Sue Over Energy Plans" (Deseret News)

Groups Sue (Greenwire)

Corridors Could Disrupt Climate Research (Scientific American)