BLM advancing controversial Calif. pumped storage hydro project

摘要

The Bureau of Land Management is nearing approval of a transmission line across federal land that is needed to operate a pumped storage hydroelectric project in the Southern California desert that some conservation groups strongly oppose. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June 2014 issued a license for Eagle Crest Energy Co.'s Eagle Mountain pumped storage project in Riverside County, which when built would have the capacity to produce about 1,300 megawatts of electricity - enough to power about 390,000 homes.