Energy Project Approved For Desert Southwest

By Heather van Blokland
Published: Wednesday, December 14, 2016 - 7:09am
Updated: Wednesday, December 14, 2016 - 7:52am

Following eight years of federal environmental review, the Bureau of Land Management announced approval Tuesday of a Southwest energy project designed to increase power and make it more efficient.

It’s called the TransWest Express Transmission Project and it is a high-voltage, direct-current electric transmission system, developed to access renewable energy systems between the Desert Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions.

The line runs more than 700 miles and crosses almost 450 miles of public lands, delivering enough energy to power up to 1.8 million homes.

It’s part of President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and create clean energy jobs.

The project will extend from south-central Wyoming to Utah, and then to the Marketplace Hub near Hoover Dam in southern Nevada, which provides interconnections to the California, Nevada and Arizona grids.