ALAMOSA - The red and white dotted line snaking 146 miles across a map of Colorado could be a path to a new energy economy or a scar on the state's spectacular landscape.

That string of dots - a proposed new high-voltage transmission line into the San Luis Valley - also is pitting utilities, agricultural and business interests against an amalgam of community groups and landowners, from a goat herder to a billionaire hedge-fund manager.

It is a battle that may be fought across Colorado, as the state needs $2 billion in new transmission lines to tap into wind and solar power, according to a state task force.

And it is a clash running across the West.

"Transmission has become a battleground," said Doug Larson, executive director of the Western Interstate Energy Board, an association of 11 states and three Canadian provinces.

In the past six months, lines have been blocked by local opposition in... [continue via Web link]