Boebert: ‘They picked a good time to pick a fight with eastern Colorado’
The Prowers County Commissioners moved from their usual meeting room to one that would accommodate the large crowd that attended the Feb. 11, 2025, meeting, which centered on opposition to the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor or NIETC. By the conclusion of the meeting, the commission had approved a Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and members of her staff attended via Zoom, and told the gathered crowd that she was scheduled to meet with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, a fellow Coloradoan, and would relay the opposition of landowners and counties.
Boebert was adamant that those concerned should continue to submit public comment, which closes Feb. 14 at midnight at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/16/2024-29419/notice-of-early-public-and-governmental-engagement-for-potential-designation-of-tribal-energy-access.
“I am optimistic,” she said. “If this were last year, I would tell you to hold on, but I think they picked a good time to pick a fight with eastern Colorado.”
In a release on the final day of public comment, Boebert said she is pleased with recent resolutions passed from local governments in southeast Colorado opposing the current plan for the Southwestern Grid Connector Corridor that will run through the region as part of the Biden Administration’s NIETC plan. The resolutions from Prowers County, Baca County, Crowley County, Bent County, and the Town of Holly, criticized the lack of involvement of local governments in the process and expressed grave concerns about the federal government’s potential to use eminent domain to seize hundreds of thousands of acres in their counties and towns.
“Local counties and towns across southeast Colorado have made it clear: this NIETC process has been broken from the start and has left them with serious concerns about the federal government taking over their land,” Boebert said. “I spoke directly to Energy Secretary Chris Wright on this topic and shared with him the frustrations 4th District leaders, ranchers, farmers and landowners feel about this federal land grab. Our staff is in communication with the Department of Energy, and I am confident we will get to a positive resolution in the coming weeks. For now, I encourage everyone to leave more public comments in opposition to this federal takeover of southeast Colorado.”
MORE OPPOSITION
According to a spokesperson, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., along with Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., have reached out to Secretary Wright’s office to relay the concerns of landowners and folks on the ground about the comment period, requesting that it be extended. Their offices are still awaiting a response.
Prowers County farmer and rancher Dallas May addressed the meeting (he clarified that he was not speaking on behalf of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, but as a local producer) and said there is no shortage of available transmission lines in the area. He said there are four that traverse his ranch, one of which was completed last week.
“When this is framed as a transmission corridor, it’s anything but a transmission corridor,” May said. “They use that term because it’s the less obtrusive and most of us have the least amount of problem with that.”
May said several of his neighbors have successfully negotiated renewable energy projects on their property, which is their private property right.
“Once this goes into place, all of a sudden those rights are gone,” he said. “Once the power of eminent domain is given to private. For-profit companies, your and your family’s legacy is gone.”
May said the eminent domain would cover only the acres within the boundary, which is 18.18 acres per mile based on a standard transmission line easement of 150 feet. Notably, the 5-15-mile-wide easements in Colorado and New Mexico is significantly more vast. The loss of production, he said, is much higher based on the loss of production. For example, a pivot sprinkler no longer able to rotate that must be replaced by a windshield wiper sprinkler that is much less efficient and covers fewer acres is a cost shouldered by the producer and not covered by the eminent domain condemnation. Once land is condemned, he said, the ability to negotiate for the fair market value of the acres and lost production is gone.
IN NEW MEXICO
New Mexico Cattle Growers Association president Bronson Corn said the organization has hosted multiple townhall-type meetings that have been well attended by landowners.
“There’s a lot to it and a whole lot of concerns with it,” Corn said. “The town hall meetings have been very well attended, and we get a lot of questions but no participation from DOE (Department of Energy). They’ve been invited and we have not heard anything back, and not just invited once, I think that we’ve actually sent three confirmed emails, and we haven’t even received a read receipt from the email so they haven’t even opened them.”
One of the major concerns Corn detailed in his comments on behalf of NMCGA in addition to the failure of DOE to consult with state and county officials and participate in meaningful stakeholder engagement, is the DOE has not informed the Commissioner of Public Lands or other state officials in New Mexico of any planned environmental assessment or environmental impact statement related to NIETCs.
According to the NMCGA comments, National Environmental Policy Act also requires both DOE and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consult with appropriate federal, regional, state and local agencies during the planning stages of any proposed action that requires an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement “to ensure that all potential environmental impacts are identified.” DOE has already said the NIETC proposals may require such NEPA processes, although no coordination with counties or local agencies has yet occurred. According to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, there are 37 threatened or endangered species in eastern New Mexico and 10 designated critical habitats. This entire proposed corridor encompasses the lesser prairie-chicken habitat, which is threatened in some areas and endangered in others.
Corn said NMCGA has asked DOE to describe in detail the full range of non-transmission solutions which might be included in the corridor, including a possible nuclear waste site, because NIETC goes directly over Holtech, a proposed spent rod storage site. There has been no response.
NMCGA echoed many of the comments May made in the Prowers County Commission meeting, saying NMCGA is concerned about how NIETC will affect landowners’ ability to secure loans or continue their revolving line of credit when their land is no longer available to graze or farm at maximum capacity. “The corridor will decrease land values, and the implementation will lower the marketability of land, making it harder for landowners to sell their property. No buyer will want to purchase property where there is a potential for condemnation. Furthermore, it will have a negative impact on landowners who rely on hunting as an income avenue from selling game tags. The NIETC is tying the hands of the landowners’ negotiating powers and giving it all to the energy companies. Landowners may already have existing easements on their land. This project has the potential to interfere with these easements. Neither DOE nor Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has addressed how they will mitigate the impact on landowners or easement leases.”
