Source: Amber Ningen, Platt County Record Times

Landowners voiced their concerns during an informational meeting this past Monday regarding the regarding the Gateway West Transmission Line Project. The project, according to its website, is a joint project between Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power to build, operate and maintain approximately 1,150 miles of new 230 kilovolt (kV) and 500 kV transmission lines across southern Wyoming and southern Idaho.

Bob Tarantola, a contractor for Rocky Mountain Power, explained that Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power are building this new transmission line to provide electricity to meet increasing customer needs.

This project was proposed through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Because of its size and scope, it involves both public and private lands. The NEPA process started in the spring of 2008. This initiated several public meetings.

Tarantola explained that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the lead agency in the NEPA process.

In photo at top right: Aaron Gibson, right, customer and community manager with Rocky Mountain Power, answers a question of Bob Whitton, Chairman of the Renewable Energy Alliance of Landowners, during an informational meeting last Monday night. (Photo/Amber Ningen)

According to Margaret Oler, external communications and media relations, an exact line route has not yet been selected and the lines shown on the maps are a “proposed” route.

Several landowners spoke against aspects of the project during Monday’s meeting. Bob Whitton, Chairman of the Renewable Energy Alliance of Landowners, voiced several concerns he had with the project.

The Renewable Energy Alliance of Landowners is a landowner group made up six counties - Platte, Goshen, Niobrara, Albany, Converse and Laramie. Whitton said the organization has over 300 landowners and over 800,000 acres they are trying to get leased for wind development in southeast Wyoming.

Whitton said they’re working hard with legislative task forces, the governor and any industry groups they can find to try to get transmission “because we want transmission in southeast Wyoming for our wind farms.”

Whitton said the problem is they can’t get any power on Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power’s transmission line. Gibson said that their system has 1.7 million customers and that it’s not just funded by people living immediately in Wyoming. “It’s funded by all of our regulated customers,” Gibson said.

Whitton countered by saying when the transmission line is brought down through Platte County, most of the people they run across will not be their customers.

“They’re going to be bearing the cost of having your transmission line across their property,” Whitton said. Whitton went on to say that they “need transmission lines” but didn’t see a push from Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power trying to help with that. The proposed route, Whitton said, may in fact impede some transmission lines that would help southeast Wyoming develop wind farms.

“In addition to that, we feel very strongly that if you’re going to run a transmission line across a landowner, then you should pay them a reasonable amount of money every single year for the fact that you’re on their property,” Whitton said. “I don’t see you willing to step up to that either.”

For more information on this project, go to www.gatewaywestproject.com.

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For more information on this project, go to www.gatewaywestproject.com.