For Immediate Release: December 20, 2007
Contact: Mel Lloyd BLM 970-244-3097

Public comments sought on West-wide Energy Corridor Draft EIS

MONTROSE, Colo. — The Bureau of Land Management Uncompahgre Field Office (UFO) is seeking public review and comment on the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft PEIS) recently released by the BLM and the U.S. Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce and Defense.  The Draft PEIS proposes designation of energy transport corridors on Federal lands in 11 western states, including Colorado.  The proposed energy corridors would facilitate future siting of oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission and distribution lines on Federal lands in the West to help address growing energy demand while protecting the environment.  Designating these corridors would minimize the dispersal of rights-of-way for energy transport projects on public lands managed by the UFO and located in Montrose, Delta, San Miguel, and Ouray Counties, as well as elsewhere in the West.  The planning effort is in accordance with Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. 

The Act further directs that environmental reviews be completed for the designation of such corridors, and that the designated corridors be incorporated into relevant agency land use and resource management plans.

“We have been working with Washington office staff for the past two years to provide them with information they in turn used to help develop the locations presented in the Draft EIS,” said Field Manager Barb Sharrow.  “My staff spent a considerable amount of time ensuring that our special and unique resources were avoided wherever possible and that what Washington was going to propose made the most sense for public lands managed by the UFO.”  For the most part, the proposed corridors are located along existing transmission lines, highways, pipelines or other rights-of-way. 

The Draft PEIS evaluated factors that constrain where a network of energy transport corridors could be located – including topographical, environmental and regulatory constraints – as well as the overall suitability of particular lands to support development and operation of energy transport infrastructure.  Eighty-four percent of the corridors proposed and analyzed in the Draft PEIS are located on BLM-managed lands, while 14 percent are on USDA Forest Service lands.  The remaining fractional percentages are on lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service, or by the Department of Defense.  The proposed corridors are agency-preferred locations for siting of future pipelines and transmission lines. 

Several public meetings to take oral comments on the Draft PEIS are being held in each of the 11 states and in Washington, D.C.  One meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 15, 2008, at the Courtyard Marriott located at 765 Horizon Drive in Grand Junction.  There will be two sessions, one from 2 to 5 p.m. and another from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Draft PEIS was published in the Federal Register on November 16, 2007, which initiated a 90-day public comment period.  Interested members of the public, government agencies, American Indian tribes, States, and non-governmental organizations are invited to submit comments on the Draft PEIS.  To submit comments and to review the Draft PEIS and related documents, including detailed maps, visit the project website at http://corridoreis.anl.gov.  Review copies of the PEIS are also available at the UFO.  For information specific to the UFO, contact Teresa Pfifer at (970) 240-5316.

-BLM-