Supporters of liquefied natural gas terminals have thrown a late snag into what has been an orderly process to create rules for developing multibillion-dollar energy corridors in Maine. LNG representatives want to extend the current moratorium on energy corridors and create a government commission to do more reviews. Their proposal was filed late last week with the special study group already debating policy for energy corridors.

Landowners in Henderson and Ellisburg are charged up over the proposed transmission line for Galloo Island Wind Farm. They voiced their displeasure with the plan during public hearings for the Public Service Commission on Monday morning and evening in Henderson and Belleville. In fact, none of the about 50 speakers at Monday's hearings supported the project. Upstate NY Power Corp., the developer for the entire project, is seeking to build a 50.6-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line.

A remote corner of East County is shaping up as a battleground between companies pushing wind farms as clean and cheap power generators and activists who view them as a blight on the landscape. It has put environmentalists in the position of opposing renewable energy because, they say, it's in the wrong place. Drawing the most attention is a plan by the Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola to build about 100 skyscraper-sized towers in and near the McCain Valley, a federal conservation area abutting Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Wisconsin’s endangered species law (s. 29.604, Wis. Stats.) requires the Department of Natural Resources to notify the public when it proposes to authorize the incidental taking of a state endangered or threatened species.

Even before Hydro-Quebec tentatively acquired NB Power, it turns out the Quebec government-owned utility was already taking up all the export capacity in NB Power's transmission system, leaving no room for anyone else to export electricity to New England. But New Brunswick Energy Minister Jack Keir says that doesn't prevent Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or anyone else from building a transmission line across New Brunswick.

Canadian and Irish companies announced plans Friday to build a 100-mile-long power line in Montana that could prompt construction of wind farms in the Great Falls area by giving developers access to large out-of-state markets hungry for renewable energy. ...Construction of the transmission line would spur the construction of wind projects near it, Jamison said. Gaelectric is studying wind farm construction at several sites across the state, including near Fort Benton and Havre.

A Canadian transmission company and an Irish wind developer said Friday they are teaming up to pursue a central Montana power project that could result in at least $1 billion worth of new wind energy in the Great Falls area. If the project succeeds, it would give Montana's burgeoning wind energy industry room to grow - an expansion that to date has been limited by a lack of lines to move power out of the state.

Moving renewable energy resources from where they could be produced to where they have a market is the goal of one of the biggest electric transmission projects conceived of in the United States. The name of the project is SunZia Southwest and what the company wants to do is take a fiber cable 460 miles from the southeastern New Mexico area to the Phoenix area. ...The ballpark figure for the completed power transmission line is $1.5 billion, Crane said. "This is a very big project," Crane said. "It is important to understand the primary purpose is to enable renewable resources.

Wind energy in the Panhandle has become the darling of developers who see a profitable future. But establishing wind farms and erecting turbines are just part of the answer. Capturing the wind is an initial step; it's another matter to transport that energy. ...Bev Dampf recently addressed Randall County commissioners on the subject. He expressed frustration with a lack of support from the city of Amarillo and the county for opposition to a line proposed to run roughly along Sundown Lane just south of the city.

North America's largest utility company Hydro-Quebec has announced it will pay $4.4 billion for transmission lines of New Brunswick Power, a deal that would help the company secure greater access to electricity markets in the U.S. Hydro-Quebec announced Thursday that it expects to spend up to $23 billion over the next decade to boost its hydro electric output by 4,500 megawatts a year. Much of that will be exported to the United States and Ontario.

Eleven possible routes for a new high-voltage power line proposed to link substations in Lampasas and Gillespie counties have been filed with the Public Utility Commission by LCRA Transmission Services Corporation. The 345 kilovolt line, slated to go into operation in 2012, will cover about 90 miles and could traverse Gillespie, Llano, San Saba, Burnet and Lampasas counties, said Gaylon Finklea Hecker of the LCRA.

The rows of white turbines spinning over wheat fields and ridgelines in eastern Oregon are ample evidence that renewable energy from wind is real and growing. ...But wind developers are just getting started. And thousands of miles of new power lines carried by skyscraper-sized steel towers will need to be laid across deserts, farms and forests as more wind farms rise in farther-flung corners of Oregon and the West. It won't be cheap, or without controversy.

106 San Saba citizens took a stand last Monday evening. Literally. The standing room only crowd assembled at 7:00 pm on October 19th to learn more about the proposed high-voltage transmission line proposed for San Saba County. The proposed line (known as the Brown-Newton Line) would bring energy from West Texas wind farms through Central Texas to population centers like Austin, San Antonio and Houston. ...No one spoke in favor of the proposal.

Maine can have a reliable power grid for substantially less money, and with far fewer transmission towers and substations, than the $1.5 billion project Central Maine Power Co. is proposing, the staff of the Public Utilities Commission has concluded. In an analysis made available late Tuesday, the PUC staff said CMP has overstated and accelerated the need for its Maine Power Reliability Program, in part by using forecasts for growth in electricity use that have become outdated since the recession started. ... the staff concludes that the grid could be upgraded for $667 million under a basic plan, and for $852 million under a more extensive upgrade, depending on what is done.

While it appeared briefly Monday that the lights were out on a proposed high-voltage electric transmission line that would serve the state's growing wind industry, officials recharged the plan Tuesday. The Southwest Power Pool Inc.'s board of directors on Tuesday included the $518 million "Spearville line" in a package of transmission expansion projects it was forwarding for further study and probable approval. The 765-kilovolt line would go from Spearville, the site of a wind farm in southwest Kansas, to Wichita and down to the Oklahoma border, where it could hook into lines to other states.

A power transmission line that could be the first in the United States to transport renewable energy might pass through Las Cruces and White Sands Missile Range, according to preliminary plans of the SunZia Transmission Project. A public scoping meeting was conducted Monday at Court Youth Center to provide interested residents with information about the project. Plans call for wind energy generated in east-central New Mexico, near Clovis, to be transported 460 to 560 miles to a substation in south-central Arizona.

Western states seem to have a wide portfolio of energy resources and the consumer markets to better meet the ambitions of both energy-producing states and energy-importing states. What's missing is a strategy for beefing up and modernizing the Western electrical grid to make those connections, according to industry officials. "We can't even connect the dots on a piece of paper. It's like the weather -- everybody talks about it, but nobody ever does anything about it," said Richard Walje, president of Rocky Mountain Power.

Roseanna Cherrington became nervous when she received a letter from the Bonneville Power Administration asking permission to dig holes in her land. The federal BPA, the Pacific Northwest's largest power marketer, is exploring a plan to build a 500-kilovolt transmission line running about 70 miles from Castle Rock to Troutdale, Ore., to meet growing power demand in the area. The BPA is looking to string the line between a series of steel towers, each about 80 to 150 feet tall.

The company set to build wind energy transmission lines from Childress County to Gray County will meet with the public this week. Cross Texas Transmission plans high-voltage lines along a 90- to 120-mile route that would be in a right-of-way 200 feet wide, according to information from the company. The lines will run from east of Childress, near Kirkland, to southwest of Lefors.