Reply #37: Yep [View All]

[blogslut]

And guess who is trying to do it in the good old U.S.A.?Why, none other than everybody's new favorite energy hero, T. Boone Pickens:

...Pickens has long pumped water from the Ogallala Aquifer through his company Mesa Water, but has recently formed an itsy-bitsy eight acre water district (populated not coincidentally by people firmly in Pickens’ pocket) which will finance the construction of a $2.2 billion water pipeline running into the the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area from the Panhandle. Electric transmission will run above this.

New Texas legislation makes it possible
Up until last year this wouldn’t have been possible under Texas law, but during the last session of the state legislature a new law was passed which allows renewable and clean-coal energy projects to obtain public rights of way by piggybacking on a fresh water district’s ability to claim land for water pipelines—by eminent domain if necessary. A water transmission pipeline can be built underground and the transmission lines can run above it.

In doing this Pickens can reduce the time required for permitting and obtaining rights of way, reducing his exposure to regulatory risk, and potential save a good deal of money in the process. And in the end hopefully create a healthy profit for himself.

Eminent domain raises concerns along the route
It seems quite efficient really, but the thought of land being seized through eminent domain raises people’s hackles like little else. Last month residents along the route received letters explaining that their lands may be disturbed...

link: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/water-not-wind-behind-tboone-transmission.php

He will drink your milkshake. He's drinking ours.