The Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming is taking public comments on a long awaited 725 mile long transmission project. The Trans West Express transmission project was started in 2008 and is intended to take renewable energy from south central Wyoming to Nevada. Wyoming B-L-M Spokeswoman Beverly Gorney says they’ve had to consider a number of environmental and other issues in the draft environmental impact statement.
“We look at things like are we avoiding sage grouse core areas in Wyoming for example. Are we avoiding special areas in Utah that are used for the military in their training operations? Are we following the west wide energy corridor in as many places as possible?”
Gorney says the answer to all of these questions is yes. But Gorney adds that it has not been an easy process.
“We try and thread a 725 plus mile project across four states and hope that we can get from start to finish and not impact special areas and not impact anything that is critically important like wilderness study areas or roadless areas. It’s a very delicate balance as you can imagine.”
Gorney says the public comment period on the draft EIS will last until September 30th.
