Thread by @latimes

Even as President Biden urges Congress to fund a rapid buildout of clean energy infrastructure to fight climate change, an arm of his administration is helping to block the country’s largest renewable power project.

@Sammy_Roth reports: latimes.com/environment/ne…

Way back in 2019, @Sammy_Roth asked an energy company owned by one of America’s richest individuals to alert him when they were down to one final landowner standing in the way of their plan to send massive amounts of wind power from Wyoming to California. latimes.com/environment/ne…

This week, company officials finally had an answer for @Sammy_Roth.

They said the last landowner standing between California and an infusion of climate-friendly power will be a family of Colorado ranchers — working closely with a federal agency. latimes.com/environment/ne…

Under normal circumstances, Anschutz Corp. might try to invoke eminent domain.

But an agency within the Department of Agriculture spent $3.3 million to help fund a “conservation easement” across 16,000 acres of Cross Mountain Ranch. latimes.com/environment/ne…

In exchange for that money, the landowning Boeddeker family agreed not to sell any of the ranch to a developer who might build homes (or anything else).

Power lines wouldn’t be allowed. latimes.com/environment/ne…

Conservation easements are meant to preserve economies dependent on agriculture, while protecting farm and ranch lands that provide wildlife habitat.

At Cross Mountain Ranch, officials said an easement would help the greater sage grouse, an iconic Western bird.

📷: Erik Glenn

Anschutz’s TransWest subsidiary sued the Department of Agriculture in 2019, arguing that the Natural Resources Conservation Service violated federal law and its own policies when it approved and funded an easement that would block the planned power line. latimes.com/environment/ne…

Regardless of who wins in court, this battle illustrates a tension that is only getting more pressing — the tension between building renewable energy infrastructure and protecting ecosystems

@Sammy_Roth reports: latimes.com/environment/ne…