Settlement Allows Wind Energy To Be Transported, WY to Las Vegas

Here’s a bit of good news: Remember the craziness about How a federal agency is blocking America’s largest wind farm?   A federal agency was helping to block construction of a 730-mile transmission line designed to carry power from a 3,000-megawatt Wyoming wind farm toward the West Coast, in a fascinating example of the growing tension between conservation and fighting climate change.

Now the conflict has been resolved. An energy company owned by the billionaire Phil Anschutz — who is developing both the wind farm and the TransWest Express power line — sent me a settlement signed last week, in which Colorado’s Cross Mountain Ranch and federal officials agreed to allow construction. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had previously funded a “conservation easement” on the Colorado property, which supporters said would protect sage grouse habitat and a wildlife migration corridor.

The settlement will also allow construction of a power line developed by PacifiCorp, an arm of Warren Buffett’s energy empire.