An article in the San Francisco Chronicle identifies a circumstance that could benefit the metals industry: “President Obama’s vision of a clean energy future of wind farms and solar plants [will] require thousands of miles of new high-voltage power lines to move the energy from where it’s most abundant [to] power-hungry urban centers.”
The article spells out potential political battles between federal and state agencies and government agencies and property holders should such a grid expansion actually occur.
Factors ranging from state’s rights and property owners’ rights to clean energy and endangering protected animal species all come into play, according to the Chronicle.
More pertinent for metals producers and wire and cable recyclers is whether the major grid expansion is likely to move forward.
Among factors pushing the expansion:
- In California, with solar resources, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an order requiring the state to get 33 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, “adding pressure to expand transmission lines,” according to the Chronicle.
- In Congress, advocates of a proposal from Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), say “speed is essential to avoid years-long delays in building the lines and to get renewable power online quickly to fight global warming,” says the newspaper.
Potential routes for the transmission lines include some that will cross several states, such as delivering wind energy from the Dakotas to cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis.
Senator Reid’s bill is seen as benefiting his home state of Nevada, where the solar energy potential is also considerable. In Reid’s scenario, “states would have to devise plans for where to site new transmission corridors and who would pay for them within a year or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could step in and draw the lines,” according to the news report.
Routing such lines has proven difficult in recent years. In California, San Diego Gas & Electric has met resistance with a proposed 150-mile line through a state park and may face further lawsuits.
Not all environmental groups are opposing the grid expansion. Groups including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Wilderness Society have signed onto a recent vision statement “that calls for both better planning and accelerated siting of power lines,” reports the Chronicle. Building near existing transmission lines is one likely tactic.
Senator Reid has said he hopes to bring his transmission line expansion plan to the Senate floor this summer as part of a three-bill package that also includes renewable energy and carbon cap-and-trade legislation.