News

U.S.: 12 year legal battle on Medicine Lake project continues

U.S.: 12 year legal battle on Medicine Lake project continues Steam well by Calpine at the Geysers, California (source: KQED Quest/ Flickr)
Alexander Richter 14 Mar 2010

The legal battle over a Calpine geothermal power project of 49 MW continues in the Medicine Lake area in California, with claims by Native American groups.

Reported locally, ” The fight over a geothermal power plant in the Medicine Lake Highlands area continued into its 12th year Wednesday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard the case, according to a recent press release from the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

According to the release, the plaintiffs allege that the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management illegally awarded energy leases to the Calpine Corporation for industrial development in the Medicine Lake Highlands area, which has been designated as a Native American Traditional Cultural District.

According to the release, the lawsuit against Calpine’s plans to build a 49-megawatt geothermal power plant is one of two against Calpine, the other aimed at fighting the building of a separate power plant in the Medicine Lake area.”

Source: Siskiyou Daily News