BLM gives initial OK to transmission line route
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - The federal Bureau of Land Management has taken a step toward approving a route for a transmission line linking the southern Nevada and northern Nevada electrical grids.
Great Basin Transmission, an affiliate of independent power producer LS Power, received a finding that the line would have no significant environmental impact.
The transmission line would carry electricity some 250 miles from White Pine County to Las Vegas.
Mark Milburn, project development director for LS Power, says the company wants to build the power line even if the company doesn't build a coal-fired power plant near Ely.
He says the 500-kilovolt line, dubbed the Southwest Intertie Project, would let utility company Nevada Power Co. of Las Vegas tap power from northern Nevada geothermal energy sites.
And Sierra Pacific Power Co. of Reno would be able to get power from solar power plants in southern Nevada.
Related News

Most Energy Will Come From Fossil Fuels, Even In 2040
LONDON - Which is more plausible: flying taxis, wind turbine arrays stretching miles into the ocean, and a solar roof on every house--or a scorched-earth, flooded post-Apocalyptic world?
We have no way of peeking into the future, but we can certainly imagine it. There is plenty of information about where the world is headed and regardless of how reliable this information is—or isn’t—we never stop wondering. Will the energy world of 20 years from now be better or worse than the world we live in now?
The answer may very well lie in the observable trends.
A Growing Population
The global population is…