A unique 200-square-mile stretch of sloping mountains within the Modoc National Forest in Tulelake, California is taking center stage of a dispute between local tribes and a major U.S. power company. For the Pit River Nation, the Medicine Lake Highlands just below California’s border with Oregon is sacred. Tribal members bathe in the Pit River for healing and coming-of-age ceremonies, and medicine men train on its bank. But for the federal government and San Jose-based Calpine Corp., the area is a potential source of power—geothermal energy. Calpine plans to build a 49.5-megawatt facility, enough energy to power 50,000 homes.

Such massive geothermal deposits are rare in the United States, making the Highlands the “most promising undeveloped geothermal resource in the world,” according to the Calpine brochures. The proposed facility would help California comply with a state mandate that 20 percent of its energy is renewable. Calpine already operates 85 power plants, including the largest geothermal operation in the world.

In 2000, the Clinton administration blocked Calpine’s proposal for a geothermal complex at Telephone Flat, two miles from the Medicine Lake Highlands, approving only the proposed facility at the nearby Fourmile Hill. Calpine sued the federal government for $100 million, but agreed to drop the claim if the Bush administration reconsidered the Telephone Flat plant. The administration approved it in 2002. In response, the Pit River Nation filed a lawsuit on the grounds that environmental concerns were not addressed and that consultation with the local tribes never happened. In November 2006, the 9^th Circuit Court ruled in favor of the tribe. Calpine appealed and is expecting a decision later this year.

It is estimated that Calpine has spent at least a half million dollars lobbying local tribes. A splinter group of the Shasta Nation has come out in support of the facility.

The federal government considers geothermal a clean, renewable alternative to fossil fuels, but the tribe is concerned about the release of chemicals from drilling, including arsenic, chromium, and hydrogen sulfide.

If the appeal is overturned the plant would operate continuously and include 50 miles of pipelines, transmission lines, and access roads.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 11:40 am by Fresh Energy and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.