The Biden administration has formally approved a Nevada power line project tied to the push to ramp up renewable energy development in the state.
The Bureau of Land Management will issue a record of decision approving the Greenlink West transmission line project that will carry enough electricity generated mostly from solar projects to power more than 4 million homes, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi and acting Interior Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis announced Monday during a news conference in Las Vegas.
The 470-mile-long power line, which will run from Las Vegas along the state’s western spine north to Reno, is arguably the highest priority transmission line project currently under review. BLM has estimated that over the next 35 years the power line could spur 56 solar projects across more than 333,000 acres of primarily BLM-administered lands in Clark, Esmeralda, Mineral and Nye counties in southern Nevada.
Some conservation groups have raised questions about the project because it could disturb part of a national monument established by Congress a decade ago to protect ice age fossils.
