T A N C GREEN ENERGY or STIMULUS MONEY GRAB VIA LINES of DESTRUCTION ?

THIS SITE IS NOW DEDICATED TO THOSE COMMUNITIES THAT FACE A POWERLINE ATTACK. IT WILL REAMAIN ON THE NET AS A GUIDE TO STRATEGY IN YOUR FIGHT. WE SHALL POST OUR CORE GROUP RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUMMARIZE OUR ATTITUDE AND STRATEGY. I WOULD ESTIMATE THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE BY OCTOBER 1ST, 2009.THE TEXT BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL WEBSITE (AND THE GREY MENU BAR TO THE LEFT) AS IT REMAINS FROZEN THE DAY TANC DIED.

The very first point is: IS TANC commiting fraud? SMUD, REU/Redding and the other members of TANC are by now well aware that we believe they mis-represented the RETI REPORT, but that they also tried to change that report and nowignore it.

We will get to that down the page...lets begin with....

A BETTER WAY:

Virtually all of the electricity we produce and consume in America originates from a centralized electricity infrastructure. Utility or industrial scale generation facilities like coal, nuclear, hydro, and natural gas, are remotely located. Expensive and dangerous transmission lines are then needed to move the power into the urban centers where it is most needed. This is a very outdated approach based on 19th century technology.- The Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy

Carol A. Overland is a utility regulatory attorney and electrical consultant based in Minnesota and Delaware, representing clients in energy dockets including transmission projects, wind, gas and coal gasification generation, and nuclear waste.THIS IS WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY.

"TANC is banking on the cloak of 'renewable power' to cover up all the irregularities of this whole process. But they don't have data to back up their claims."- Jean Saffel, landowner

This project also compromises compassion, social and environmental injustice, health issues (including luekemia, cancers, alzheimer's), Homeland Security issues and a wide variety of individual, by site, geological and cultural "hands-off" circumstances.

Here is a RECENT LOOK AT POWERLINES AND ALZHEIMERS.

Asthma, heart & lung disease folks and compromised immune system people should probably consider that this project may be dangerous for them.

Some scientists have even linked powerlines to depression, suicides. allergies, asthma, skin cancer and lung cancer and other diseases.

The local clinic, Hill Country Community Clinic, opposes this project. Here is the British Study. Here (2, 3) is the California Study.

Magnetic Field Calculations for powerlines.

In summary, this project is archaic in a health sense, environmental sense, terrorism sense and a technological (GREEN) sense. Read on.

Why Don't Power Companies Support Local Green Power?

In Davis, California currently many homes are fitted for solar power. Each homeowner gets a credit for the electricity they produce and the extra goes back into the grid. Why wouldn’t power companies want to do this? They would lose money. They would instead like to claim that they are going to produce green power but they have to devastate the environment, communities and health to do so. Join together with your community to STOP TANC’s proposed transmission project in our backyards. Furthermore, the sneaky back door style notification to land owners, flies in the face of TANC's "transparent" (thier word) public process.

An Engineer, in this article, entitled Report recommends shifting power-line money to solar panels, says one-third of San Diego's electricity could come from rooftops by 2020.

Here is a side by side comparison of the outdated centralized Big Energy model and "The Better Way" of generating and distributing renewable energy near its point of use. This chart makes the case for rooftop photovoltaics and microwind so compelling, it was published in the Sierra Club Desert Report.

See Round Mountain map of existing high voltage lines, substation and TANC's proposed substations and lines.View this map and ask yourself, "Is this environmental and social justice"? (Both are part of TANC's so-called scoping process).

Environmental Justice is defined as:
Environmental justice (EJ) refers to inequitable environmental burdens borne by groups such as racial minorities, women, residents of economically disadvantaged areas, or residents of developing nations. Environmental justice proponents generally view the environment as encompassing "where we live, work, and play" (sometimes "pray" and "learn" are also included) and seek to redress inequitable distributions of environmental burdens (pollution, industrial facilities, crime, etc.) and equitably distribute access to environmental goods such as nutritious food, clean air & water, parks, recreation, health care, education, transportation, safe jobs, etc. Self-determination and participation in decision-making are key components of environmental justice. According to a compilation of thoughts by several notable EJ organizations, root causes of environmental injustices include "institutionalized racism; the commodification of land, water, energy and air; unresponsive, unaccountable government policies and regulation; and lack of resources and power in affected communities".- Wikipedia

Round Mountain and the surrounding communities, ALREADY have PGE and TANC lines criss-crossing the countryside, and have, what was formerly the largest sub-station in the world, centered in the valley, feet off the main highway. This sub-station "went down" in the past and service was lost from Texas to Washington. Round Mountain property values have crashed by the mere proposal of this project. HUD will not issue FHA insured mortgages for houses near transmission power lines. Geologically, the area's infamous land slides have cost pge tens of millions of dollars in rescue efforts. But the GRID keeps sliding.

Existing powerlines in Round Mountain with land-slides caused by them. Click here to enlarge.	Existing Substation. Vital to power 12 states. This was the largest substation in the world when it was built. Click here to enlarge.	TOTAL IMPACT: Click here to enlarge.

Cumulative impact is the combined impacts of the past and present. Since Round Mountain is concentrated with overlapping electrical fields already, a comprehensive health study in Round Mountain is desperately needed and should have been undertaken before any expansion of the grid there was considered. TANC says they will be studying the health effects but to date there have been no community questionaires, medical researchers or any attempt to understand the cancer ALREADY in the community. Some families under the existing powerlines have a dim and sometimes hopeless story of relentless cancer and other diseases.
In fact, Round Mountain IS a case study in demand (as it is now) because of the gigantic substation present.

Round Mountain is also the center of the 1992 Fountain FIre, in which 79,000 acres burned (at the time the largest ever fire in California) and hundreds of homes were lost. DID THE POWERLINES CAUSE THE FOUNTAIN FIRE? It is a fact that powerlines increase the chances of lightning strikes. Therefore there will be increased lightning strikes throughout Round Mtn and Intermountain area, we have enough fire danger as it is. Downed powerlines can also cause fire. Years ago, the old growth timber had been removed and then seven dams built, destoying precious salmon and fish runs (the salmon are no longer here). All the water passing thru the countryside is sold to cities in southern california. Today's generation of this community suffer intense forest clearcutting and chemical herbicide exposure as well as massive EMF and other High Voltage Electrical exposure from PGE/TANC lines that PROVIDE NO POWER FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. Round Mountain IS a community that fits the definition of Environmental INJUSTICE. A healing of the land, waters, wildlife and Citizens must be allowed. This project endangers every inch, physically, emotionally and Spiritually of the Inter-Mountain community.

To add further insult to injury, electric bills for local residents are some of the highest rates in the region!

"I don't think that customers that don't benefit in some way in another region ought to be paying for something that's occurring in a different region," - Senator Bob Corker (R-TN)

BACKGROUND
 
TANC, a California Joint Powers Agency with members made up of municipal utilities in northern California.  SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) is the largest of these. Redding is to receive 3% of power from the project. Information about TANC is available on its website, http://tanc.us/.  The proposed transmission lines would transmit renewable energy generated in northeastern California and northwestern Nevada to the areas served by TANC members. 

The TANC transmission project has several parts, of which the biggest is using two of the three identified corridors for 500 kV lines. There are also some proposed lines between Tracy and the Bay Area, as well as lines east to Turlock. TO see if your property is threatened, or your view, community, etc., go to THIS LINK and view the interactive map. BEWARE, as many citizens in the Redding meeting have complained, the map is extremely inaccurate, sometimes by miles, and much of it is 5 years old data. This seems to be "typical" of how careless this project is in MANY other details, like geological errors, ENERGY POTENTIAL (see geo-thermal below) and THE ATTITUDE OF TAXPAYERS!

To fullly understand why this project is pure garbage, one must read the RETI FINAL PHASE 1B REPORT. Lassen and Round Mountain are continously rated as dead last or in the lowest 10% of ALL CRITERIA for a RETI VALUED PROJECT. In fact, it CLEARLY looks like RETI is trying to de-catagorize those two sites. But because SMUD, REU (Redding) and the other members of TANC HAVE AN INVESTMENT IN THE PROJECT (and can already taste the money), they won't have it. They were counting on the scoping period flying by, as usual, without any public consciousness of the project. If TANC hadn't ILLEGALLY tried to purchase property from a landowner in Round Mountain (by mail), hardly anyone would have noticed. The massive and agressive community campaigns that have erupted since (along the ENTIRE line) have the moral upper hand and the many thousands of landowners have a combined financial might that will reveal all the dark truths in this affair and get this off our backs. It will also make visible every deceitful, sneaky and as many of us now believe, criminal act that has taken place.

When this project was ORIGINALLY thought up, it reflected the un-restricted corporate glut and lack of oversight found under the previous administration. This same route actually can connect the filthy coal plants of Nevada to California as well as natural gas in Ravendale (NOT a "green" energy) and lines up to connect northern and eastern imported fossil fuel energy from Canada and the Rockies, as stated in early TANC documents. NOW, the project reflects trying to make that IDEOLOGY fit into the urgent but careful needs of today and tomorrow. Square peg into a round hole. In fact if this project were to go thru, it would announce that the government does NOT take the urgent need for reducing carbon, averting catastrophic climage change or making a move into the 21st Century. This would announce that California is not a leader in the world, not even in the nation. But it doesn't end here.
 
There are MANY OTHER key issues:
1.  FRAUD?: Is the TANC project fraudently PORTRAYING that "green power" generation exists in their northern California plan?. They say that, though that generation doesn't exist, it WILL BE BUILT once they build their transmission lines. However, the RETI report, the GUIDELINES for California transmission projects, rates significant portions of this project as DEAD LAST in the state. This is NOT the ideals that the American Public will tolerate as we shift to URGENT and WISE use of our technologies to create a viable future for OUR CHILDREN. This IS NOT a case that can pass the scrutiny of the Citizen's of California and the Attorney General. Is TANC's PR slanted to indicate this as a RETI VALUED project? (WHICH IT IS NOT). Also, the "build it and they will come" IS NOT a reasonable basis for emminent domain.
 
2.  Furthermore, local governments have invested in the TANC project and also plan to receive power, such as is the case of Sacramento. The utility there attempted to alter the course of the conflicts created by #1 above, by pressuring RETI to change its report. Afterwards TANC released a press release, CLEVERLY INDICATING the RETI Report portrayed the DEAD LAST site as this wonderful place to make green energy. Lassen S-A is DEAD LAST.
 
3. The notification process is now four times longer and may possibly continue more. The incompetence seen in expert notification IS A REFLECTION of the REST OF THE PROJECT. We are only begining the process of reverse engineering public documents and paper trails.TANC representatives appear more like USED CAR SALESMEN. At every public meeting TANC had, questions largely went un-answered and TANC's favorite response was "put it on your comment card". That being said, our day in court will have a favorite theme...READ THE RETI REPORT.
 
4.  The CEQA/NEPA process requires analysis of an entire project.  This fragmented approach is wrong, and all “connected actions” need to be considered in a single assessment of cumulative impacts for all of the interrelated elements.

IN THE ROUND MOUNTAIN REGION (MAP)

“While experts discuss cyber security threats, physical attacks on infrastructure are taking place.
AT&T said that vandals are to blame for the massive phone and Internet outage in Silicon Valley on Thursday.”
-(CNET 10-Apr-2009)
If vandals can bring down the phone and internet what more can a well funded terrorist organization do?

5. TERRORIST ATTACK: TANC is planning a SECOND sub-station in ROUND MOUNTAIN, the site of an existing sub-station owned by PGE that services SIX STATES. Already that station is an EASY TERRORIST TARGET that can be hit by any one of multiple possible "Knock Down" devices (ie: stinger missle, IED etc.) from MANY vantage points surrounding the Round Mountain and Montgomery Creek "bowl". The most direct is Round Mountain (the mountain) itself, just across the highway from the PGE station. A second sub-station is INVITING a terrorist attack that would take down power to nearly 100 million people and six states. HOW DID TANC PASS THIS PLAN BY HOMELAND SECURITY? .......THEY DIDN'T....Homeland Security is unaware of this project, and at this time, so are most of our state legislators, the FBI and local law enforcement of Shasta County (where Round Mountain is). TANC's board and everyone associated with the project must act as if we didn't just loose 4300 American Soldiers, kill a horrendous number of "collateral" humans, spend a billion dollars and eight long years in the WAR ON TERROR. Here is the LAW PERTAINING TO HOMELAND SECURITY::

HR 5005-12 Critical Structure Information Act (2002)
Under Secretary for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection shall be as follows: (excerpt follows)
(3) To integrate relevant information, analyses, and vulnerability assessments (whether such information, analyses, or assessments are provided or produced by the Department or others) in order to identify priorities for protective and support measures by the Department, other agencies of the Federal Government, State and local government agencies and authorities, the private sector, and other entities.
(5) To develop a comprehensive national plan for securing the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States, including power production, generation, and distribution systems, information technology and telecommunications systems (including satellites), electronic financial and property record storage and transmission systems, emergency preparedness communications systems, and the physical and technological assets that support such systems.
(6) To recommend measures necessary to protect the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States in coordination with other agencies of the Federal Government and in cooperation with State and local government agencies and authorities, the private sector, and other entities.

AND ACCORDING TO THIS SECTION, WAPA HAS FAILED TO NOTIFY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY:
H. R. 5005—16
(2) regardless of whether the Secretary has made any request or entered into any cooperative arrangement pursuant to paragraph (1), all agencies of the Federal Government shall promptly provide to the Secretary—
(A) all reports (including information reports containing intelligence which has not been fully evaluated), assessments, and analytical information relating to threats
of terrorism against the United States and to other areas of responsibility assigned by the Secretary;
(B) all information concerning the vulnerability of the infrastructure of the United States, or other vulnerabilities of the United States, to terrorism, whether or not such
information has been analyzed;
(C) all other information relating to significant and credible threats of terrorism against the United States, whether or not such information has been analyzed; and
(D) such other information or material as the President may direct.

SO FAR, the Department of Homeland Security has FAILED TO DO ITS JOB, unless TANC is required to inform them first, in which TANC has FAILED TO DO ITS JOB. As we have shown, WAPA, specifically DAVID YOUNG, has failed to notify Homeland Security of their plans to place a terrorist target smack in the middle of northern california that could result in a catastophic failure of the western powergrid.

7. BIO-MASS, using the forest to fuel the energy on the grid,IS NOT GREEN ENERGY Yet part of TANC's "potential" generating sources is BIO-MASS proposed just north of Montgomery Creek and ROUND MOUNTAIN, extending into the BIg Bend region. Currently, clearcutting is the primary method of logging by timber companies in the region (see www.stopclearcutttingcalifornia.org for the dangerous climate and environmental aftermath of clearcutting), and it can only be expected that with BIO-MASS projects, the environment and the public will continue to see degradation and death of our natural resources. In a report from Regenwald, supported by scientists worldwide:

"Burning biomass is being falsely hailed as one of the “cheapest and most versatile” ways to produce non fossil-fuel energy for electricity, heat and manufacturing processes. Generating electricity and transportation fuels including cellulosic ethanol from wood is gaining tremendous support, though it is a commercially untested and highly inefficient process, and would have devastating cindexonsequences for already overburdened terrestrial ecosystems, climate and the biosphere.."

biofuelwatch - US groups demand "no biomass/no burn" definition of renewable

8. GEO-DISTORTION: Geo-thermal energy in the Big Bend region is also shown on TANC and state resource maps. TANC says geo-thermal in the region is just one more reason for their project. Again, this potential energy is fraudulently claimed as the US Corps of Engineers, as well as others, have determined the region's water is too cool to be used for energy. Again, TANC distorts the truth. At this time TANC should provide THEIR DATA to prove the Corps of Engineers have incorrectly assessed the geo-thermal.

9. WINDY TALK: Here is the California wind potential map put out by the department of Energy. Again, TANC has declared that Round Mountain and surrounding region is a great place for wind, BUT IT IS NOT. There IS alot of wind potential in California and the nation (map) but it IS NOT HERE. This is off the DOE's own webpage:

"This map indicates that California has wind resources consistent with utility-scale production. The areas of good-to-excellent resource are concentrated in southeastern California. Notable good-to-excellent resource regions include the mountains east of San Diego, San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, the Tehachapi Mountains southeast of Bakersfield, and areas in the Mojave Desert. In northern California, the areas of Altamont and Solano near San Francisco have good-to-excellent resource."

10. California's historical load data doesn't line up with TANC's claims. Currently, California is actually USING 1/2 of the power it is producing. Research started to combat TANC has revealed a general flaw in California energy (and other state's) "business" of power. In short, conserving energy, by not over-producing power, is bad for the power producing business. It is not about what is best for the nation, climate change or any other reason...it is about the cash lined pockets of those in the energy business (NEVER forget ENRON!). And these guys are supposed to "GO GREEN"?? Fool us twice SHAME ON US. NO WAY TANC!

I1. NOT "SMART GRID" TECHNOLOGY: Alot of talk right now is about "Smart Grid" technology and the federal government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars researching feasability, where and how much to create this advanced system. TANC ADMITS THIS IS NOT SMART GRID. The fact remains, in the face of progress and a sustainable healthy future, that this is ANTIQUATED TECHNOLOGY SERVING TO LINE THE POCKETS OF A FEW by DESTROYING THE HABITATS OF MANY.

12. CAN THIS PROJECT BE STOPPED? It was made clear at the scoping meeting in Williams on April 14th that the so-called "No Project" option -- whether the TTP should be builT at all -- must and will be considered. Consequently, comments about the overall logic behind the project, it's practicality, it's financial viability, etc. are valuable.

TANC's wreckless attitude towards Round Mountain, including inviting terrorist attacks on the western grid, environmental and social INJUSTICE and a total DIS-RESPECT for the over-all communities' notification (TANC DID NOT EVEN HAVE A PUBLIC MEETING IN ROUND MOUNTAIN!!!), is being met face to face by angry RURAL AMERICANS who care about the security of the nation, our grid, our community, OUR CHILDREN and our environment. TANC is a THREAT to all of that and more.

ROUND MOUNTAIN-DISRESPECTING A COMMUNITY

"Put it on your comment card" -Bryan Greiss asst. director of TANC Won't come out and have a meeting since we "don't have a city council" Part of the 170 plus attendance The Inter-Mountain meeting about TANC Round Mountain Community Center, Sun May 3rd. Round Mtn to SMUD and TANC Local Sierra Club: NO GO! to Project

RED BLUFF MEETING OF LANDOWNERS (425)

13. TANC's project is a money grab that includes large federal stimulus dollars. In other words, TAXPAYERS WILL BE PAYING A LARGE PORTION OF THIS PROJECT....the SAME taxpayers that have NO PATIENCE for Corporate Distortion of truths, uncaring attitude for public and environmental health and MORAL BANKRUPCY.

14. OAK DESTRUCTION: According to the California Oak Society-
...the conversion of either CA timberlands or oak woodlands will require mitigation of carbon biological emissions under the Air Resources Board's Forest Protocol. Two carbon dioxide (CO2) biological emission impacts must be considered for CEQA review: (1) direct CO2 emissions associated with the disposal of impacted trees; (2) cumulative loss of carbon sequestration potential for impacted native trees over the next 100-years. The following CEQA greenhouse gas information is relevant for project review:

1. How much sequestered CO2 will be released if the live trees (including roots), standing dead trees or downed-woody debris are burned or otherwise disposed?

2. How much potential CO2 sequestration over the next 100 years will be lost as a result of project impacts to live native trees three (3) inches or greater in diameter at breast height?

3. How will project native tree CO2 biological emission impacts be proportionally mitigated?

COF assumes that following the existing power line route would have substantially less impact to native forests. Whacking forests for "green" energy can become a PR nightmare.

Ron Cowan, COF technical consultant