Enviros sue to block Bush-era paths for electricity

Several environmental groups have joined forces to sue federal agencies over the location of the ‘West-Wide Energy Corridors’ for new electric transmission, Kate Galbraith reports for The New York Times. Among the complaints is a claim that the corridors, established by the outgoing Bush administration in January, were created without state or local input and support the use of fossil fuels, not renewable energy.

The paths also run through several national refuges like the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah (Times photo). “We want to build them in the right places to do the least environmental harm,” Carl Zichella of the Sierra Club told Galbraith. (Read more)

The lawsuit comes on the heels of T. Boone Pickens’ announcement that his plans to build the world’s biggest wind farm have been delayed because of the inability to secure financing to install expensive transmission lines, Keith Johnson reports for The Wall Street Journal. Despite the change, Pickens says his commitment to place 667 wind turbines is undeterred, just not all in one location, “and I am going to find projects for them.” (Read more)