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.

The proposed SunZia Southwest Transmission Project seeks to deliver wind-generated electricity to western area markets and load centers. The proposed parallel lines would run through federal, state and private lands. ...According to a U.S. Bureau of Land Management news release, SunZia's proposed route for the 460-mile lines would originate at a substation to be constructed in Socorro County or nearby Lincoln County.

The SunZia transmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona is just the sort of energy project an environmentalist could love -- or hate. And it is just the sort of line the Interior Department has been tasked with promoting -- or guarding against. If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel.