The Medicine Lake Highlands (called Saht Tit Lah) by the Pit River Tribes have long been used by the Pit River, Wintu, Karuk, Shasta and Modoc Nations as a place of healing, a place of teaching, and a place to pray. It should be little surprise that when a place this sacred exists someone will try and develop it out of existence. The culprit this time is the Calpine Energy Corporation that has spent decades trying to develop and industrial complex in the middle of one of the most sacred and remote sections of Northern California. Using the smoke screen of providing "green" energy Calpine hopes to develop not just one but a complex of geothermal power plants in the middle of this sacred area. The play has unfolded like a Greek tragedy with the Federal stewards of the land doing minimal environmental assessment and no consultation with the affected tribes when they first issued scores of leases in the 1980s. The government has a trust relationship to the tribes but that was not enough to get them to ignore the voices of all those dead presidents printed on our currency. It seems money talks and trustors walk. The project never received a true cost/benefit analysis and the Tribes have been forced to seek justice in the courts.
The Pit River Tribe will be in court on March 12, 2015 in the latest round of legal battles regarding the leases. Leases convey a right of entry and development. Calpine had allowed all but one of its leases to expire. Of course not all "green energy" is truly green. If you have every been out to the Medicine Lake Highlands you would notice that there are few roads, a few houses around Medicine Lake, and not much else. With development there would be a new network of roads, power plants, associated infrastructure, and billowing plumes of noxious steam. Heck, right now there are no transmission lines anywhere near the highlands, forcing a major electrical infrastructure project if any of that "green energy" is to be used. Additionally there are severe risks of pollution from the geothermal wells. Local residents tell me that since four test wells went in the temperature of Medicine Lake has been rising steadily. Industrial solutions in rural landscapes normally wind up destroying the latter.
This truly is a David versus Goliath scenario as a small consortium of tribes, a few homeowners, and scattered environmental groups take on corporate America and the Federal Government to save one of the few sacred areas that are left to them.
If you would like to tune in to proceedings you can listen on http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/live_oral_arguments.php. Archived at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/
https://www.youtube.com/user/9thcirc/videos
Normally I will not be using my blog as a political forum and in the way of disclosure I have worked for the Pit River Tribe and still contract with them as an archaeologist. I have too many friends there to be silent. I support the Pit River Tribe in its desire to protect their cultural heritage for future generations. There are lots of other places to get "greener" energy without such costs.
The Pit River Tribe will be in court on March 12, 2015 in the latest round of legal battles regarding the leases. Leases convey a right of entry and development. Calpine had allowed all but one of its leases to expire. Of course not all "green energy" is truly green. If you have every been out to the Medicine Lake Highlands you would notice that there are few roads, a few houses around Medicine Lake, and not much else. With development there would be a new network of roads, power plants, associated infrastructure, and billowing plumes of noxious steam. Heck, right now there are no transmission lines anywhere near the highlands, forcing a major electrical infrastructure project if any of that "green energy" is to be used. Additionally there are severe risks of pollution from the geothermal wells. Local residents tell me that since four test wells went in the temperature of Medicine Lake has been rising steadily. Industrial solutions in rural landscapes normally wind up destroying the latter.
This truly is a David versus Goliath scenario as a small consortium of tribes, a few homeowners, and scattered environmental groups take on corporate America and the Federal Government to save one of the few sacred areas that are left to them.
If you would like to tune in to proceedings you can listen on http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/live_oral_arguments.php. Archived at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/
https://www.youtube.com/user/9thcirc/videos
Normally I will not be using my blog as a political forum and in the way of disclosure I have worked for the Pit River Tribe and still contract with them as an archaeologist. I have too many friends there to be silent. I support the Pit River Tribe in its desire to protect their cultural heritage for future generations. There are lots of other places to get "greener" energy without such costs.
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