Saturday, April 25, 2009
Renewable Energy's Environmental Paradox
I see quite a few stories like this.
There's no dispute that alternative energy sources are a good thing.
Unfortunately, the space they require and the necessary connecting lines are issues that appear difficult to resolve...
There's no dispute that alternative energy sources are a good thing.
Unfortunately, the space they require and the necessary connecting lines are issues that appear difficult to resolve...
Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson report in the Washington Post:
"If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. 'We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds of the plains to places where people live,' Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said recently.
But the line would also cross grasslands, skirt two national wildlife refuges and traverse the Rio Grande, all habitat areas rich in wildlife. The graceful sandhill crane, for example, makes its winter home in the wetlands of New Mexico's Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, right next to the path of the proposed power line."
