Huge Victory for Pit River Tribe and Native and Environmental Justice Allies!

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9th Circuit Court stops Calpine’s geothermal energy development at sacred Medicine Lake Highlands!

Pit River Country, CA—Native Americans and their environmental justice supporters have scored a big victory in the effort to protect the Medicine Lake Highlands near Mount Shasta from the establishment of a geothermal power plant by Calpine energy corporation on lands held by the U.S. Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

On November 6th the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court the court rejected the extension of leases of federal land that would have allowed Calpine to develop the geothermal plant, bringing Calpine’s controversial plans to a halt.

Since genesis the Highlands have been sacred to the Pit River, Wintu, Modoc, Shasta, Klamath, and other Native nations, many of the families in these nations are the traditional caretakers of these lands and it is their responsibility to protect them. Many strategies have been used to accomplish these goals, including securing investor divestment of shares from Calpine, exposing the company’s illegal energy price fixing scheme, and staging a massive protest at the company’s headquarters in San Jose earlier this year. In addition, the Pit River Nation and various Native sacred sites protection and environmental groups sued the federal government and Calpine in an attempt to stop the development which would cause irreparable damage to the natural environment and Native cultures of the area.

In 2004 plaintiffs lost in federal court when a judge ruled that federal agencies had complied with environmental and historic preservation laws and did not violate the federal trust responsibility to the Pit River Nation. However, these laws and the trust responsibility in particular are not to be taken lightly. The federal government has a unique relationship with Indian nations derived from the U.S. Constitution, treaties, Supreme Court doctrine, and federal statutes and clarified over time in executive orders and presidential directives. Federal agencies have a duty to consult with Indian nations on proposed projects and services that may impact upon their socio-economic and governmental wellbeing. In the situation of the federal agencies issuing leases to energy companies to build geothermal power plants in the Highlands, neither the FS nor the BLM consulted with the Pit River Nation prior to executing these deals.

The plaintiffs appealed the ruling and in a unanimous decision, the 9th Circuit Court on November 6, 2006 reversed the lower court decision. Judge Clifford Wallace indicated that federal agencies neglected their fiduciary responsibilities to the Pit River Nation by violating the National Environmental Protection and the National Historic Preservation Acts and that the agencies never took the requisite 'hard look' at whether the Highlands should be developed for energy at all. As a result, the court rejected the extension of leases that would have allowed Calpine to develop the geothermal plant and the district court is now directed to enter summary judgment in favor of Pit River consistent with this opinion.

The federal government could appeal the Circuit Court decision to the Supreme Court. In preparation for this potential outcome, but Native peoples and their allies are vowing to increase pressure on Calpine to stop the proposed project once and for all.