Major Western Transmission Project Finally Gets Green Light

Massive transmission line will send wind power from Wyoming to California; After 18 years, the TransWest Express line receives final approval.

Gabriela Aoun Angueira, April 17, 2023 (Grist)

“…[After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, gave final approval to begin building the $3 billion, 732-mile TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line] capable of sending power from what will be the largest onshore wind farm in North America to western states…[It] will deliver three gigawatts of power from the 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, which broke ground this year in a former coal-mining community in Wyoming, to grids in Arizona, Nevada, and California…

click to enlarge

…[C]omplicated permitting processes can slow the country’s transition to clean energy…Projects built on federal lands are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which dictates the environmental review process. NEPA does not include time limits for when environmental reviews must be completed…[and the] TransWest Express crosses four states, through both public and private lands, and required approvals from various federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, as well as some determined property owners…

click to enlarge

…[Despite support for permitting reforms by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm,] substantive changes have not yet materialized…[House Republican permitting reform in the Lower Costs Energy Act were so antithetical to clean energy goals that it] was a “nonstarter” in the Senate…[TransWest Express delivered wind[ could be particularly impactful for California…TransWest Express LLC, a subsidiary of Anschutz Corp., which also owns the wind farm project, said it expects to complete the project by 2028.” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet