Military Forests to Fuels in Oregon

The Warn­er Moun­tains form the east shore of Goose Lake, a nar­row 70 mile long range in places over approach­ing 10,000’. Heav­i­ly forest­ed, the range is the meet­ing place of three biore­gions – the Great Basin, Sier­ran, and Cas­ca­di­an – cre­at­ing a unique mix of flo­ra and fau­na, many endem­ic. Its unique biol­o­gy, geol­o­gy and feel, an abun­dance of aca­d­e­mics well know.

The arche­o­log­i­cal record indi­cates peo­ples have lived in the area for almost 15,000 years and the num­ber of cul­tur­al sites and resources unpar­al­lelled in the Unit­ed States – even com­pared to the south­west. Pet­ro­glyph pan­els 2 miles long and 40 feet high with fig­ures taller than most men. Over the last few years, law enforce­ment has closed many of the large recent­ly dry lake beds in the region because of looting.

Since con­tact, the area has been heav­i­ly logged and grazed – even irra­di­at­ed from ura­ni­um pro­duc­tion – but is recov­er­ing. With a pop­u­la­tion den­si­ty aver­ag­ing one per­son per mile, the poten­tial for large scale wild lands pro­tec­tion for the many threat­ened and endan­gered species in this sea of blue sky, sage, ante­lope and juniper is among the best in the country.

The Project

The Depart­ment of Defense is sub­si­diz­ing Red Rock Bio­fu­els, of Ft. Collins, Col­orado $75 mil­lion to annu­al­ly cre­ate 18 mil­lion gal­lons of high­ly volatile jet, naph­tha (white gas), and diesel fuel from for­est bio­mass in the town of Lake­view, Ore­gon. The Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment for the project, whose pub­lic com­ment ends Feb­ru­ary 5, 2016, is site spe­cif­ic and does not address region­al cumu­la­tive envi­ron­men­tal and social impacts.

The project site is in the 100 year flood­plain of Goose Lake. Like the Mal­heur Nation­al Wildlife Refuge, Goose Lake is one of many crit­i­cal stops on the pacif­ic fly­way. The fuels will be sent to mar­ket via a derail­ment prone rail­way whose tracks fol­low the shore of Goose Lake into Cal­i­for­nia and along the North Fork of the Pit Riv­er, a trib­u­tary of the Sacra­men­to. Crit­i­cal­ly, the tracks are one hun­dred feet from the front door of mem­bers of the XL band of the Pit Riv­er Nation, and any spill would dev­as­tate their agri­cul­tur­al lands.

The pro­posed facil­i­ty site con­tains hun­dreds of cul­tur­al arti­facts dat­ing back thou­sands of years, includ­ing the very high poten­tial of human remains. Red Rock and the State His­toric Preser­va­tion Office of Ore­gon have an agree­ment, say­ing all arti­facts are the prop­er­ty of the own­er. Nei­ther the State nor Red Rock have agree­ments with the Kla­math, Piute and Pit peo­ples who, after con­sul­ta­tion, oppose the project.

Emer­gency, water and sew­er ser­vices for the project will be born by the cit­i­zens of Lake­view and project pro­po­nents will be giv­en 15 years of local tax cred­its. There is no Emer­gency Response Plan to respond a cat­a­stroph­ic event at the bio­fu­els facil­i­ty that would require an evac­u­a­tion of 2,500 peo­ple or for a poten­tial derail­ment along the rail­way that includes the XL Pit and near­by town of Alturas, Cal­i­for­nia (pop. 2800).

One hun­dred miles from nowhere, Lake­view has some of the worst fine par­tic­u­late / PM2.5 pol­lu­tion in the nation – a nasty air pol­lu­tant the lodges deep in the lungs and caus­es long term and debil­i­tat­ing dam­age, espe­cial­ly for the elder­ly. Over the years, EPA has strength­ened the Nation­al Ambi­ent Air Qual­i­ty Stan­dards for par­tic­u­late mat­ter due to the abun­dance of sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­ture regard­ing the neg­a­tive health effects of PM expo­sure and its costs to society.

Envi­ron­men­tal groups peti­tioned the EPA to redes­ig­nate Lake­view as nonat­tain­ment under the Clean Air Act and denied it just before the release of the envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment. The rejec­tion was based on a vol­un­tary quid pro quo pro­gram that has not received for­mal rule­mak­ing called “Advance,” the result being peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty are fined for burn­ing in their wood­stoves while Red Rock is allowed to pol­lute with­out Best Avail­able Con­trol Tech­nol­o­gy on their refin­ery stacks, along with a water­ing down of the Con­gres­sion­al intent of the Clean Air Act.

Of nation­al impor­tance, Advance applies to all NAAQS con­stituents, a pro­gram that could be com­ing to a neigh­bor­hood near you.

Uniden­ti­fied Appetite

The project requires a great deal of for­est bio­mass over its lifes­pan and would not be built with­out an assur­ance that the sup­ply would be avail­able and con­stant. This sup­ply can­not pos­si­bly be met though Red Rock’s asso­ci­a­tion with the Collins sawmill alone. An Ore­gon com­pa­ny, Collins is heav­i­ly invest­ed in bio­mass, involved in sev­er­al projects includ­ing a large facil­i­ty in Chester, CA and anoth­er cur­rent­ly being pro­posed Hum­boldt Coun­ty. It requires resources from fed­er­al lands to be viable.

The project bor­ders three states. Using a 75 mile radius, the Fre­mont-Wine­ma in Ore­gon and Mod­oc Nation­al For­est in Cal­i­for­nia are at risk. As are the Hart Moun­tain-Shel­don Nation­al Ante­lope Refuges in Oregon/Nevada and the Mod­oc Nation­al Wildlife Refuge in Cal­i­for­nia. There are also three large BLM dis­tricts in three states.

This com­pli­cates things, as each depart­ment, bureau, region and state has their own poli­cies and ini­tia­tives, their own legal man­dates, and all too often they are incon­gru­ent with region­al land use plan­ning and coor­di­nat­ed response to pro­posed projects. This project has immense region­al for­est and land use implications.

Since the project will require for­est bio­mass from fed­er­al lands, it is incum­bent upon the fed­er­al lands man­age­ment agen­cies work coop­er­a­tive­ly and cre­ate a stand alone for­est sup­ply assess­ment for the 20 year lifes­pan this project. At a min­i­mum, DoD/Red Rock needs to release their own pri­vate sup­ply assess­ment that must have been devel­oped for the project.

Bring­ing Home the Bacon

Although jus­ti­fied for nation­al secu­ri­ty pur­pos­es by DoD as diver­si­fy­ing its fuels port­fo­lio, it is also jus­ti­fied from a pri­vate sec­tor busi­ness perspective.

Red Rock and their finan­cial invest­ment firm back­ers Flag­ship Ven­tures will uti­lize fed­er­al sub­si­dies designed for renew­able ener­gy and enter into guar­an­teed con­tracts with the DoD. It is a no lose mon­ey mak­ing oper­a­tion. For addi­tion­al prof­it, they have entered into agree­ments with Fed­er­al Express and South­west Air­lines so that these busi­ness­es can claim they are “green” for pub­lic rela­tions purposes.

From the polit­i­cal per­spec­tive, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Rep. Greg Walden all see bio­mass ener­gy as a return to pre-North­west For­est Plan employment.

Wyden uses his influ­ence via the Sen­ate Finance Com­mit­tee to gain sub­si­dies for the bio­mass ener­gy and fuels indus­try. He is a lead­ing voice con­cern­ing the fund­ing of the USFS wild­fire and pre­treat­ment activ­i­ties – well fund­ed jobs projects in the wildland/wildland inter­face – and the USFS itself is involved in yet anoth­er dubi­ous “col­lab­o­ra­tive” effort like the fail­ing Four For­est ini­tia­tive in Ari­zona. He is vocif­er­ous in his sup­port for bio­mass energy.

Along with a good many tim­ber state Democ­rats in the Sen­ate, Merkley says he sup­ports a seces­sion of drilling for oil in the arc­tic while at the same time ask­ing the EPA to con­sid­er bio­mass ener­gy as renew­able just before release of the Clean Pow­er Plan. While the CPP did not look favor­ably regard­ing indus­try account­ing claims that the for­est to ener­gy process­es are car­bon neu­tral, they did relent and allow each state to deter­mine car­bon neu­tral­i­ty for them­selves and then jus­ti­fy it as part of the required Car­bon Plans States must sub­mit to EPA.

Walden, Nation­al Repub­li­can Con­gres­sion­al Com­mit­tee Chair and for­mer Chair of the Resources Com­mit­tee cur­rent­ly held by Land and Water Con­ser­va­tion Fund oppo­nent Utah’s Bob Bish­op, pro­motes the recent­ly released Utah-based Koch Amer­i­can Lands Coun­cil cam­paign that crit­i­cizes the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment over the severe 2015 fire sea­son, call­ing for an increase in graz­ing and log­ging as a way to reduce the risk. He said as much respond­ing to the Mal­heur stand­off and watch for him to flex his polit­i­cal mus­cles with the Red Rock project.

From a local eco­nom­ic per­spec­tive, for decades Lake­view and Lake Coun­ty have been pro­mot­ing for­est bio­mass to ener­gy projects as part of their eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment goals. It almost goes with­out men­tion the town wants the jobs asso­ci­at­ed with any industry.

Jane O’keefe is a for­mer Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er who start­ed the work­ing land­scapes pseu­do-envi­ron­men­tal group Sus­tain­able North­west that pro­motes and pro­vides a sheen of “envi­ron­men­tal­ist” coop­er­a­tion to cov­er for these for­est to bio­mass projects through­out Ore­gon and the North­west. A Wyden staffer helped her get it start­ed in the 90s. She is now a board mem­ber of the Ore­gon Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty Commission.

Sec­re­tary Sal­ly Jew­ell works with area ranch­er and Ore­gon Cattlemen’s Asso­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent John O’keefe, the hus­band of Jane, pro­mot­ing Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or sub­si­dized for­est treat­ment pro­grams and their “ben­e­fits” to sage grouse, cat­tle for­age and ripar­i­an restora­tion. His vocal pub­lic coop­er­a­tion with the Depart­ment of Inte­ri­or is a large rea­son the list­ing was not granted.

There is eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal insti­tu­tion­al iner­tia at work, and pro­po­nents already lost a bio­mass to elec­tric­i­ty project in 2015 that was to be devel­oped by inter­na­tion­al renew­able ener­gy giant Iber­dro­la Renew­ables in Lake­view. They do not want to lose Red Rock.

A para­ble for pro­po­nents, the White King and Lucky Lass Mines are inse­cure Super­fund sites con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by ura­ni­um that sit 20 miles north­west of Lake­view in the Fre­mont-Wine­ma Nation­al For­est. The ore was tak­en into Lake­view where a pro­cess­ing mill oper­at­ed for a total of 2 years, cre­at­ing a radioac­tive plume of ground­wa­ter work­ing its way south under the indus­tri­al dis­trict, to town and even­tu­al­ly Goose Lake. One of the rea­sons the Iber­dro­la project failed is they couldn’t build on their site. It is con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by the future-past promise of jobs.

Bait and Switch

Red Rock wants nat­ur­al gas to dri­ve their process­es. They intend to use nat­ur­al gas to heat a ves­sel con­tain­ing for­est bio­mass that is closed to the atmos­phere and heat­ed, the result­ing gasses cap­tured and refined into bio­fu­els. They can also use nat­ur­al gas to heat a ves­sel of nat­ur­al gas to refine into fos­sil fuels in the case of sup­ply dis­rup­tions, which means bio­mass feedstock.

Here we have a poten­tial bait and switch, where sub­si­dies gained under a now out­dat­ed bio­mass car­bon neu­tral­i­ty ruse result in switch­ing entire­ly to pro­duc­ing fuels from fos­sil based inputs. Although Ore­gon DEQ did require an analy­sis of the option, there is no men­tion of it in the DoD EA much less a mod­el and dis­cus­sion of the entire car­bon cycle.

With­out a For­est Sup­ply Assess­ment, we can­not pos­si­bly know feed­stock antic­i­pat­ed sup­ply or dis­rup­tion. By rely­ing on indi­vid­ual agency NEPA sale or treat­ment doc­u­ments instead of a for­mal sup­ply assess­ment to pro­vide feed­stock, we absolute­ly know that dis­rup­tions are like­ly to occur based on lit­i­ga­tion alone.

Don’t Let it Happen

Cit­i­zens shouldn’t be fined while DoD backed busi­ness­es are allowed to pol­lute. EPA must not be allowed to negate Con­gres­sion­al “rigid­i­ty” of the Clean Air Act through an inter­nal pro­gram cre­at­ed with­out for­mal rule­mak­ing that has the poten­tial to affect all Nation­al Ambi­ent Air Qual­i­ty con­stituents – and by exten­sion the com­mu­ni­ties that rely on “non-attain­ment” des­ig­na­tions to pro­tect cit­i­zens and the larg­er envi­ron­ment from the greed of corporations.

It is moral­ly wrong that indige­nous peo­ples ances­tral lands are pro­posed to be pil­laged once again and against their will. Through for­est clear­ing and site devel­op­ment, a sys­tem­at­ic loot­ing of their cul­tur­al resources is about to begin.

These peo­ples have a right to the pos­ses­sions and remains of their ances­tors. They have a right to reject bomb trains at their front doors, and to ensure emer­gency response plans are in place to respond to phys­i­cal and envi­ron­men­tal threats to their safe­ty and future viability.

The largest remain­ing con­tigu­ous old growth forests remain­ing in the con­ti­nen­tal Unit­ed States are west­ern dry­land, juniper and piny­on forests. These trees reach thou­sands of years in age and just because they may not have the stature of a dou­glas fir doesn’t mean they don’t deserve recog­ni­tion and pro­tec­tion. If they are to die, let it be by nat­ur­al fire regimes and not for cat­tle or car­bon profits.

There is a poten­tial for a bait and switch to nat­ur­al gas to sup­ply Red Rock’s feed­stock and the pub­lic has a right to know how this affects long term car­bon reduc­tion goals. The EPA did not go far enough with the CPP regard­ing bio­mass ener­gy and its neg­a­tive car­bon foot­print and bowed to tim­ber state politi­cians bring­ing home bacon. The bait and switch to an unend­ing car­bon sup­ply of nat­ur­al gas to cre­ate fos­sil fuels is unac­cept­able and needs equa­tion. DoD through this envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment should oblige the plan­et and pro­vide that analysis.

Final­ly, the Lakes coun­try of Ore­gon, Cal­i­for­nia and Neva­da are wor­thy of fed­er­al pro­tec­tion and should be man­aged in an eco-region­al fash­ion sim­i­lar to the Yel­low­stone and Gila. It is a spe­cial place like nowhere else in the nation. It con­tains some of the best large scale envi­ron­men­tal restora­tion poten­tial in our nation and in the sage­brush steppe to allow for unfet­tered nat­ur­al process­es to fuel the health of an already fair­ly healthy environment.

Instead of spend­ing pub­lic tax dol­lars cre­at­ing jobs projects log­ging forests for a DoD bait and switch fos­sil fuels project under the ruse that we are pro­tect­ing sage grouse and reduc­ing wild­land fire poten­tial, the health of cit­i­zens, their land­scape, and the car­bon load of the atmos­phere would be bet­ter served by remov­ing cat­tle and work­ing inter­gov­ern­men­tal­ly to for­mal­ly pro­tect it.

Pub­lic com­ment for Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment for the Red Rock Bio­fu­els project clos­es Feb­ru­ary 5, 2016.