Dive Summary:
- Idaho Governor C.L. Otter has asked Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to send federal officials to explain the decision for a 1,100-mile high-voltage transmission line route that Otter says ignores efforts the state usually makes on route selection.
- According to Otter, the preferred route would have used public land for the line, whereas the government selected private land as the primary route for the transmission line; residents who feared this result had opposed the earliest route plans.
- The project, which is proposed by Rocky Mountain Power and Idaho Power Co., stretches from Wyoming to Idaho and is projected to upgrade the distribution of electricity in both states.
From the article:
Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has asked Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to send federal officials to Idaho to explain the federal Bureau of Land Management's decision for a 1,100-mile high-voltage transmission line route that Otter says disregards collaborative efforts in Idaho on route selection.
The Idaho Statesman reports that Otter wrote Salazar on Oct. 10 with concerns about the proposed Gateway West transmission line. Otter said the preferred alternative selected by the BLM and released earlier this month tossed out routes through the Morley Nelson Birds of Prey Conservation Area south of Kuna and instead selected routes through private land. ...