[rdawson808]

This sort of straddles SoCal and NorCal. And I'm not sure how much people ride in this area. But.....

There is a new proposal in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a massive pumped storage hydro project mostly on federal land in the Inyo National Forest, partly in the John Muir Wilderness area.

It would be something like 5200 MW and involve a serious of dams and reservoirs (and related pipes, pumps, power house, etc.). So really massive.

According to the article in the SF Chronicle, people ride there. And people definitely hike, camp, fish, etc. out there, so I thought people might want to know.

It's at the very early stages; but you might want to keep an eye on it, pro or con.

SF Chronicle article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/science...al-in-Sierra-Nevada-stirs-debate-13839661.php

FERC filing (Docket No. P-14984): https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?fileID=15203824

 

[SS Hack]

This is a joke -- it makes no sense to screw up pristine lakes and streams to provide "clean" energy. We seem to be the stupidest state in the union. We made companies add toxic flame retardants to furniture to make them "safer", we added MTBE to gas to make it "cleaner" and we subsidize electric cars, never mind the batteries are mined by children and slaves in war torn hell-holes.

 

[looks easy from here]

Local land management (Inyo National Forest and Mono County) is coming down on it hard. Details or their reactions posted here: New Owens River Gorge dam??? :: SuperTopo Rock Climbing Discussion Topic

 

[DH40]

Trump would love his own Hoover Dam, especially in CA.

 

[SS Hack]

Sure, but this is fake green project that I really doubt Trump would care about. I'll take more fracked natural gas over this thing. Glad it is not being well received. The Earthen Sierra generally blows away Tahoe for beauty.

 

[wayold]

I've never biked there, but I've hiked/backpacked several times from the Rock Creek / Little Lakes Valley area adjacent to where they're proposing this. It's pretty much a superhighway of hikers in the summer. The handy paved road to the Mosquito Flat trailhead at 10K ft makes it a favorite for lazy folks like me who want a head start on their climb. My point is that there will be LOTS of folks up in arms if this project interferes with or degrades this popular recreation area.

 

[SS Hack]

This appears slightly south east of the Mosquito Flat trailhead, but is is a busy hiking area for sure. Not much riding that I know of. The irony of the Sierra is that often a trailhead just a half mile away will be dead. There are some great hardy used trails in the national Forest (not wilderness) that you could ride as well -- many are super steep and might require an e-bike however.

 

[Francis Cebedo]

A wise man once said that a dam will never get built again here.

 

[sbd]

Water is my profession.

This will not happen.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

[rdawson808]

I'll note for full disclosure that I work for FERC, but not in hydro licensing. So I have nothing to do with the approval of this project. I do not speak for the Commission, nor any of the individual Commissioners, nor any other members of staff. I'm just doing this to provide info.



And since there is some interest in the topic, I will follow up with this snippet from an industry source. This is possible state action that would attempt to force through a (few) large pumped-storage hydro project(s). The intersection of state policies and how those policies impact Federal jurisdictional markets (i.e., CAISO's markets) is always a tricky one.


S&P Global Platts
May 14, 2019
Experts differ over value of pumped hydro, as California lawmakers mull bill
By Mark Watson

"As California lawmakers debate legislation ordering the California Independent System Operator to procure 2-4 GW of long-duration bulk energy storage, industry observers differ over a recently released white paper touting the advantages of pumped hydro storage over batteries.

"The California Senate Appropriations Committee will conduct Thursday a hearing about SB 772, “long duration bulk energy storage: procurement,” which would require the ISO “to complete a competitive solicitation process” by June 30, 2022, “for the procurement of one or more long duration energy storage projects” with combined capacity ranging from 2 GW to 4 GW.

"The bill defines a “long duration bulk storage project” as a grid-connected resource that can continuously discharge at its capacity for at least eight hours, can cycle through discharge and charge states daily, with at least 400 MW of capacity, with “a minimum useful asset life of at least 40 years.”"

and there is more that I did not copy.