TransWest Express line approved, clearing way for largest onshore U.S. wind farm; power will travel across four states

Map of planned transmission line route via BasinAndRangeWatch.org; for a larger version, click on it.

"After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, a 732-mile transmission line capable of sending power from what will be the largest onshore wind farm in North America to Western states got a green light last week," reports Gabriela Aoun Angueira of Grist. "The Bureau of Land Management gave final approval to begin building the $3 billion TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line. The infrastructure project will deliver three gigawatts of power from the 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project to grids in Arizona, Nevada, and California. That's enough energy to power about 2 million homes."

Eighteen years is a long wait. "Projects built on federal lands are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, which dictates the environmental review process. NEPA does not include time limits for when environmental reviews must be completed," Angueira explains. "The TransWest Express crosses four states, through both public and private lands, and required approvals from various federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, as well as some determined property owners."Speeding the NEPA process is another process. "While there is bipartisan support for permitting reforms [to NEPA] that could speed up or consolidate the number of decision-makers, substantive changes have not yet materialized," Angueira reports. Jeremy Firestone, an expert on wind energy at the University of Delaware, told her, "If we are going to do this transition, we need to be open and transparent and provide good information about the environmental and social effects and the positive attributes of these projects as well, like the fact that they're going to replace fossil fuel generation."

"The TransWest Express could be particularly impactful for California, which has a goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045," Angueira writes. "In a 2021 report, the state said it would have to triple its grid capacity by 2045. . . . Adding transmission capacity of this scale will be essential to converting the nation to completely carbon-free power sources. . . . Construction on the TransWest Express will start this year. . . . TransWest Express said it expects to complete the project by 2028."