Five US agencies on Thursday released a draft environmental impact
statement laying out energy corridors on federal lands in 11 Western states.

The statement designates corridors for oil, natural gas and hydrogen
pipelines, as well as electricity lines, in Arizona, California, Colorado,
Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The
departments of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense and Interior contributed
to the report.

The areas covered are largely on land managed by the Bureau of Land
management and US Forest Service land, as well as on land managed by the Fish
and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service and
the Department of Defense.

Public comments on the draft environmental statement will be held in 14
western cities, as well as Washington.

"The agencies involved in designating these corridors worked for nearly
two years to develop the locations presented in the draft EIS," Assistant
Secretary of the Interior C. Stephen Allred said in a statemenet. "From the
beginning, we were committed to avoiding the many unique areas and sensitive
resources found on Western public lands, wherever possible. Designating these
corridors will minimize the dispersal of rights-of-way for energy transport
projects across Western landscapes."

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directs the agencies to designate such
energy transport corridors and calls for them to be incorporated into the
relevant agency land use and resource management plans.