After a nearly two - decades - long permitting process , a 732 - naut mi transmission line capable of sending office from what will be the largest seaward wind farm in North America to Western states get a fleeceable visible radiation last week .
The Bureau of Land Management , or BLMgave final approvalto begin building the $ 3 billionTransWest Express high - voltage transmission line . The infrastructure project will deliver 3 gigawatts of power from the 600 - turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project , which broke ground this yearin a former coal minelaying residential district in Wyoming , to grids in Arizona , Nevada , and California . That ’s enough vitality to index about 2 million homes .
The 18 - year wait for this transmission line is a monitor of how complicated permitting processes can slow the country ’s changeover to houseclean energy .
Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)
Projects built on federal ground are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act , or NEPA , which dictate the environmental recapitulation process . NEPA does not include fourth dimension limits for when environmental review article must be finish . Also , transmission lines often cross multiple states , pay for chance for opposition and bureaucratism from multiple jurisdictions . The TransWest Express spoil four Department of State , through both public and private lands , and required approval from various Union , country , tribal , and local agencies , as well assome determined prop owners .
While there is bipartisan support forpermitting reformsthat could speed up genus Nepa processes or consolidate the number of determination makers , substantial change have not yet materialized . Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginiatried to excrete a allow reform eyeshade last fallthat would have transferred some state authorisation to the federal government on major project , but it stalled , despite backup fromSecretary Energy Jennifer Granholm .
House Republicans included permitting reform in the “ Lower Costs Energy Act , ” theenergy bill that they passed last calendar month . Its other supply were so antithetical to clean energy goal that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , a Democrat from New York , said the bill was a “ nonstarter ” in the Senate , but indicated that he need two-party give-and-take on permit reform to continue .
While streamlining blessing of interstate undertaking could help the United States meet its climate destination quicker , it ca n’t be done at the disbursement of environmental review and community comment , state Jeremy Firestone , an expert on wind energy at the University of Delaware . “ If we are going to do this transition , ” he told Grist , “ we need to be overt and gossamer and provide good entropy about the environmental and social effects , and the prescribed attributes of these task as well , like the fact that they ’re going to supercede fossil fuel generation . ”
The TransWest Express could be particularly impactful for California , which has a finish of achieving 100 percent uncontaminating energy by 2045 . To meet that end , the state would ask to hit the sack fossil fuel germ like natural gas and ember plants while simultaneously account for increased power requirement from source like electric vehicles . In a 2021 news report , the state saidit would have to triple its grid capacityby 2045 .
summate transmission capacity of this scale will be all-important to win over the nation to wholly atomic number 6 - free power sources . “ It ’s like your veins , ” Firestone said . “ If you ’ve induce your heart pumping blood , you ’ve get to get it to where you want to expend it . ”
Construction on the TransWest Express will embark on this year . TransWest Express LLC , a subsidiary of Anschutz Corp. , which also owns the air current farm project , said it expects to complete the project by 2028 .
This clause in the beginning appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/energy/massive-transmission-line-will-send-wind-power-from-wyoming-to-california/. Grist is a nonprofit , independent medium organization dedicated to telling stories of clime solutions and a just future . Learn more atGrist.org
Chuck SchumerJoe ManchinSustainable push
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