The government is closer to designating energy corridors on federal land in the western United States, a move that could help expedite the construction of much-needed transmission lines.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires a number of federal agencies to specify preferred areas throughout the 11 Western states for oil, natural- gas and hydrogen pipelines and electric power lines.
Siting transmission projects is controversial because of the visual impact of the towers and lines and their effects on wildlife and natural habitats.
Yet the new lines are needed, experts say, to deliver power to the West’s growing population and to harness electricity from renewable energy projects.
A draft report is expected to be released in the coming weeks that will show which areas the agencies – the departments of energy, agriculture, defense and the interior – are targeting.
“If a corridor were designated and a utility had a project that wanted to go through that, it would certainly speed up the process,” said Bruce Smith, executive director of the Colorado Energy Forum. “What used to take multiple years now has a pre-designation. … The utility doesn’t have to go through the brain damage it used to in the past with the federal agencies.”
Speeding up the process is key because of the shortage of transmission lines linking new energy sources like wind farms and solar facilities to cities and suburbs.
“There really hasn’t been a big investment in transmission in the western United States in about 20 years,” said Tom Darin, a staff attorney on energy transmission for Western Resource Advocates. “That’s sort of catching up with the utilities.”
About 4,000 to 8,000 new power lines are being planned, according to Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based conservation group.
Expected in the coming weeks is the so-called West-wide Energy Corridor Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, which will evaluate potential impacts associated with the designation of the corridors.
The corridor locations have not been disclosed by the federal agencies.
The release of the EIS has been delayed by a year, giving the agencies more time to consider public feedback.
Western Resource is pushing the government to take a “smart line” approach to the designation.
“If you’re going to be impacting public lands and using this public national resource, let’s be forward thinking – let’s hook up clean energy sources, like wind and solar and geothermal, and not have the corridors just go into coal country,” Darin said.
The group also wants the government to encourage utilities to locate power lines along already developed areas, such as transportation corridors like Interstate 80 in Wyoming, wherever possible.
“Use those types of things before you just start looking at an unscathed area of a national forest and decide to blaze through it with a corridor,” Darin said. “You’ve got to avoid the key public land resources and wildlife habitat.”
Darin also wants the government to force utilities to stay within the boundaries of the corridors after they are designated unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Two major transmission projects in Colorado – the High Plains Express Transmission and the Eastern Plains Transmission – won’t be affected by the West-wide designation because they aren’t expected to cut through federal lands.
Other factors have slowed construction of new power lines.
At a cost of $1 million per mile or more, building high-voltage lines is expensive. And many local municipalities oppose the construction of massive metal towers in their neighborhoods.
Transmission towers are generally considered ugly and can lower the value of nearby properties.
Last week, the federal government designated large areas in the Southwest and mid-Atlantic as critical energy areas. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission now has the authority to approve any transmission project in those areas if a new line is viewed as critical. Previously, states and local groups were responsible for approving such projects.
The southwest section is composed of seven counties in Southern California and three in Arizona.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
