Biden administration approves construction of 700-mile transmission line across US West

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced on Tuesday that it has approved the construction of a 732-mile high-voltage transmission line across the Western U.S. that will help transport renewable energy.

The transmission line, called the TransWest Express Project, will run from south-central Wyoming through northwestern Colorado and central Utah before reaching its endpoint in southern Nevada, according to the BLM.

The project is part of broader Biden administration goals to modernize power infrastructure in the U.S. West and achieve a carbon-free electricity grid by 2035, the agency stated.

“This large-scale transmission line will put people to work across our public lands and will help deliver clean, renewable energy,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a statement.

“Our responsible use of public lands today can help ensure a clean energy future for us all,” Stone-Manning added.

TransWest Express, which is expected to create 1,000 new jobs, will transport electricity generated by North America’s largest onshore wind venture, the 3-gigawatt Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, located in Wyoming.

Building out new transmission lines from this 600-turbine project will help deliver clean and reliable electricity to customers throughout the region, according to the BLM.

TransWest Express will be the second high-voltage, multi-state transmission line approved by the BLM Wyoming State Office within the last year, after the office greenlit the construction of Energy Gateway South in May 2022, the agency stated.

That 416-mile transmission line will run from a substation in southeastern Wyoming through Colorado, ending at another substation in central Utah, per the BLM.