California Needs Federal Muscle for Major Power Line Project, PMT Reports

DULLES, Va., Apr 11, 2005 -- BUSINESS WIRE

Construction of a 1,300 mile, high voltage transmission line from the Rockies to bail out power-short California will require federal legislation to coordinate the multi-state project, a private sector transmission operator told NGI's Power Market Today.

The $3.3 billion project to transmit wind and coal-generated power, which was proposed recently by four western state governors, would benefit Californians to the tune of $325 million to $400 million a year, just part of the annual benefits to the overall region of $1 billion to $1.7 billion, according to one study.

This is "a bold step to solve a real problem," Robert Mitchell, COO of Trans-Elect, said of the proposed Frontier Line plan outlined by the governors of California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Other adjoining states could be added to the plan and eventually there could be a role for private sector developers. But what the regional project needs now is federal enabling legislation to overcome some of the siting hurdles facing new, long-distance transmission power line development.

Mitchell said he recommended the states look at two options:

-- Something like the so-called Hutchinson Amendment in last year's proposed federal energy bill to expand the role of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) to get involved in more transmission projects;

-- Or a review of past federal legislation in the late 1980s which directed WAPA and the federal Department of Energy to take an active role, resulting in having a federal eminent domain and federal environmental review streamline the project.

"I think a project of this magnitude -- the Frontier Line -- demands that kind of legislation and that kind of single focus," Mitchell said. "Otherwise, you have four different states with four different environmental permitting processes. If you have WAPA lead all that, you have just one process."

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SOURCE: Intelligence Press Inc.

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