Oregon Public Broadcasting

This week, critics of federal energy policy will have a forum to voice their outrage. Several federal agencies will hold public hearings on Tuesday in Portland, and Thursday in Seattle.

The hearings are meant to address a draft map of where new oil and gas pipelines could be built. Ethan Lindsey reports.

In 2005, President Bush signed a $12 billion energy bill very different from the Democrat-supported energy bill passed this December.

Critics say the older bill was a huge subsidy for oil companies. The new bill put a stricter cap on automobile emissions.

The older bill  called for the federal government to designate energy transportation corridors.

Those corridors would be blueprints for where future electricity, oil, natural gas, and hydrogen projects would  be built.

Michael Campbell is a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, which is helping introduce the map.

Campbell says the energy corridor proposal is a plan for the 11 western states.

Michael Campbell: “There are a number of different projects being proposed throughout Oregon.”

Federal agencies will pick parcels of public land where they think projects should be built.

At the hearings, federal officials will be able to hear feedback on the maps they've drawn up.