The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the SunZia Transmission Project in New Mexico and Arizona and is initiating two more transmission line environmental reviews for the Greenlink West and Cross-Tie projects in Nevada and Utah. If approved, these transmission projects have the potential to unlock 10,000 MWs of clean, affordable, and reliable energy across the West.
The proposed SunZia Southwest Transmission Project includes two planned 500 kV transmission lines located across approximately 520 miles of federal, state, and private lands between central New Mexico and central Arizona. BLM is carrying out this environmental review in response to the company’s application to amend its 2016 right-of-way grant for the original SunZia Southwest Transmission Project. If approved, the project would transport up to 4,500 megawatts of energy from New Mexico to markets in Arizona and California.
The proposed Greenlink West Transmission Project is a system of new 525-kilovolt (kV), 345-kV, 230-kV, and 120-kV electric transmission facilities located across approximately 423 miles of private, state, and federal lands between northern and southern Nevada. If approved this line has the potential to unlock up to 5,000 MW of renewable energy.
Additionally, the Cross-Tie 500-kV Transmission Project is a proposed approximately 214-mile, 1500 MW, 500 kV high-voltage alternating current transmission project that would be constructed between central Utah and east-central Nevada, to the maximum extent possible, within federally designated utility corridors or parallel to existing transmission facilities. The proposed project would cross BLM, private, state, and National Forest System land, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service will be a cooperating agency to concurrently review the potential environmental impacts. If approved, the Cross-Tie line may unlock up to 1,500 MW of renewable energy.
