MILES AND MILES

摘要

Out West, it's hard to avoid federal lands when siting transmission lines. Lands controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) comprise more than 42 percent of all acreagernin a region made up of 11 Westernrnstates-Arizona, California, Colo-rnrado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico,rnOregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. At the same time, many of these states have abundant renewable energy supplies that require stronger interconnection andrnintegration with the transmission grid. Moreover, the Western grid has been increasingly stressed. Part of the issue is to site lines in a way that protects and minimizes impacts on these federal lands.rnOver the years, shareholder-owned electric utilities have worked with the federal agencies and environmental stakeholders to streamline the siting process. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the departments of agriculture, commerce, defense, energy, and interiorrnto designate energy transport corridors on those lands for oil, natural gas and hydrogenrnpipelines, and electricity transmission and distribution facilities. Finally, in January, blm and USFS officially designated more than 6,000 miles of energy transportation corridors.