Saturday, July 27, 2013

PENTAGON AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNITE IN OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED POWER LINE ROUTE

The Defense Department and environmental groups find themselves facing a common enemy in their strong opposition to a proposed 515 mile high-voltage electric transmission line touted as a way to transmit “green” wind energy from rural New Mexico to urban markets in Arizona and potentially California.

 The proposed SunZia system includes two single-circuit, bi-directional 500 kV transmission lines strung from 135-foot towers spaced 1,400 feet apart along the proposed route, which runs from a substation near the small town of Corona, N.M., 82 miles southeast of Albuquerque, to another substation near Eloy, Ariz., roughly halfway between Tuscon and Phoenix.

The Bureau of Land Management, which has overseen the right-of-way process for SunZia since 2009, selected a preferred route for the transmission line on June 14. But Pentagon officials say that route, which crosses the north end of White Sands Missile Range, N.M., jeopardizes operations at the range, thereby threatening national security.
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