Let's talk "green" and "environmental responsibility" vs. raw materials, shall we?

Clean Line Energy Partners likes to talk about how they are stewards of "green energy" and "environmental responsibility." I would like to take a moment with this post to put into perspective the sheer amount of raw materials that would be used in the construction of this project. You can decide for yourselves if you'd consider this "green" or "environmentally responsible." This aspect is not something that I feel has been addressed effectively. This is going to be lengthy, but please bear with me because I feel like this is a very important point from an environmental perspective. 

According to information from Clean Line's own website, there are four different types of transmission towers they are proposing to use:

1. Monopole - 110-140' tall with a single 6-8' diameter concrete-filled pier that is between 25-50' in depth. Four to six structures per mile.
2. Lattice Mast - 110-140' tall with a single 6-8' diameter concrete-filled pier that is between 25-50' in depth. Four to six structures per mile.
3. Lattice - 120-150' tall with four concrete-filled piers of unknown diameter that are between 15-25' in depth with a structural footprint of between 27-46' wide. Three to five structures per mile.
4. Guyed Lattice Mast - 120-150' tall with a single 6-8' diameter concrete-filled pier and four guy-anchor cables that are between 80-105' away from the concrete pier, for a total footprint of around 160-210' including guy-anchors.

Source: http://www.plainsandeasterncleanline.com/site/page/transmission-line-structures

Number of Towers

Let's give Clean Line the benefit of the doubt and use the tower that has the least structural footprint and we will use averages for fairness. This would be the "monopole" design. 

The Plains and Eastern Clean Line would be approximately 750 miles total in length. As stated above, if monopoles were used in the construction, there would be between four and six per mile. We will use the average of five. This gives us a grand total of 3,750 monopoles. That's a lot of towers!

Amount of Raw Steel Used for Tower Construction

According to Clean Line's website:

"A typical steel monopole transmission structure requires around 35,000 – 40,000 pounds of steel per structure and a typical steel lattice transmission structure requires an average of 32,000 pounds of steel per structure."

Again, giving Clean Line the benefit of the doubt, we are going to assume that all of the structures will be the smaller version of the monopole which would "only" use 35,000 pounds of steel per structure. If my math serves me right, 3,750 structures X 35,000 lbs per structure =  131,250,000 lbs or 65,625 tons of steel. The average modern car weighs 2,500 lbs. This would equate to enough steel to build 52,500 brand new cars. Does this sound "green" to you?

Amount of Concrete Used for Tower Construction

To do this calculation, I am going to assume three things: 

1. I will assume that the piers used in the foundation for the structures will be round. Generally, a large boring machine is used to drill these pier holes and if rock is encountered controlled blasting is used. Sometimes, depending on the thickness of the rock, a large hydraulic jackhammer is used to break up and remove rock. 
2. I will use 6' diameter as the average since they are stating that the foundation structure will be "between 6-8 feet."
3. I will assume for calculation purposes that a range of depths for the pier foundations will be used, as the depth for these foundations would be largely dependent on the type of strata present at the location of the pier. They are saying "between 25-50 feet" in depth so I will use the average of 37.5' in depth.

All of that being said, let's calculate a little bit of volume, shall we? Concrete is calculated using "cubic yards." Assuming that we would have 3,750 structures with a 6' diameter pier that is an average of 37.5' in depth, that calculates out to a little over 39 cubic yards of concrete per foundation. Multiply that by the 3,750 foundations and you come up with 146,250 cubic yards of concrete. No wonder concrete plants are in favor of this project, right?

What does this all mean when put into perspective? The average concrete truck holds ten cubic yards of concrete. This project would require 14,625 truckloads of concrete to pour the foundations. Most of us aren't aware of how much CO2 is released during the manufacture of Portland cement (an integral part in the recipe for concrete), or even how energy intense the process is. A quick Google search will shock you. Does this sound "green" to you?

In summary:

• 3,750 unsightly towers spread across two states and a small portion of a third.
• 131,250,000 lbs of steel that must be mined, processed, and turned into towers.
• 14,625 truckloads of concrete

Again, these numbers only take into account Clean Line using the smallest, least intrusive structures. This is a best case scenario. None of this takes into account the vast amount of resources and land area that will be required to construct the several thousand wind turbines that would supply electricity to this project. Clean Line basically has two options to make their transmission portion of the project look anything close to "green" or "environmentally friendly":

1. Do not build this project.
2. Install direct-burial cable underground which would require far fewer natural resources, a much smaller easement, would eliminate the unsightly 750 mile trail of towers.

The next time you talk to a Clean Line representative, ask them why they haven't proposed burying this. The answer I got: "It's complicated." Translation: "It's too expensive." Since Clean Line's only interest is with their investors' bottom line, don't expect for them to take either of these routes. If they were truly interested in being "green" and "environmentally responsible," they would use the least destructive option to the environment and landowners which would be to bury this.