“Green Path” Energy Corridor Raises Environmental Dilemma

MORONGO VALLEY, CA – APRIL 11: New grow as recovery from a 2005 wildfire continues at Big Morongo Wildlife Preserve on April 11, 2007 in Morongo Valley, California. The preserve, faces the prospect of being affected by a proposed plan to build power lines and transmission towers to deliver “green” energy to Los Angeles from geothermal, solar, and nuclear sources in southeastern California near the Salton Sea, and Arizona. The 85-mile-long “Green Path” energy corridor being pushed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to bring nonpolluting power to Los Angeles would cut through two desert wildlife preserves, a national forest, and Pioneertown, a set used in the filming of countless westerns. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) and the mayor have been condemned by more than a dozen preservation and community groups for the project that threatens to destroy wildlife corridors, natural areas, and vistas. Big Morongo Canyon, west of Joshua Tree National Park, is designated by the Bureau of Land Management as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern and is one of the 10 largest cottonwood and willow riparian, or stream, habitats in California. ()