The proposed $180 million power line into the San Luis Valley over La Veta Pass could undermine conservation efforts by large landowners, Louis Bacon, owner of Colorado’s largest ranch, said Friday.
“We always thought we’d eventually be gifting the development rights away to one of the conservation groups,” said Bacon, owner of the 171,000-acre Trinchera Ranch in Costilla County.
“But now, with this transmission line going through it is going to be difficult to accomplish that,” Bacon said in an interview with The Denver Post’s editorial board.
Bacon is chief executive of Moore Capital, a London-based hedge fund, with about $15 billion in assets.
Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association — the state’s two largest utilities — are proposing to build a 140-mile-long high-voltage transmission line between the San Luis Valley and the Front Range.
Tri-State wants the line to improve reliability. Xcel wants to use the line to export renewable energy from the valley, which has the best solar resource in the state.
“Without more transmission, we are simply not going to get solar out of the valley,” said Mark Stutz, a spokesman for Xcel.
Experts and attorneys representing Bacon have argued there are less costly alternatives to the La Veta Pass route.
In February, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved the line. Trinchera attorneys filed for a reconsideration of the ruling. A decision is expected in September.
“This been an expensive fight and a long fight, and I am prepared to continue to fight it,” Bacon said.
The major reason, Bacon said, is the opportunity to create a network of conserved public and private land stretching more than 100 miles from New Mexico to Great Sand Dunes National Park.
“I don’t think people understand the environmental value of this area,” Bacon said.
Some large landowners are already participating in conservation easement programs, and the more who do, the more pressure there is on the others, Bacon said.
The transmission line might roil the effort, Bacon said. Condemnation proceedings to get land for the line could, for example, affect property values.
“We support his efforts to leave everything that is pristine, pristine,” Xcel’s Stutz said. “But there is an air strip and subdivisions and roads, and that is the area we are proposing for the line.”
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
