May 31, 2017 – The U.S. Forest Service has released its final Record of Decision for the TransWest Express Transmission Project.

According to the USFS, the decision comes "after almost seven years of interagency and stakeholder collaboration and environmental analysis." In addition, the agency notes that the TWE Project will be "sited within existing transmission corridors across National Forest System lands," which will minimize impacts. About 19 miles of the TWE Project is on USFS land.

The TWE Project is a high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) electric transmission system being developed by TransWest Express LLC to directly and efficiently access diverse renewable energy supplies while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. This significant energy infrastructure will strengthen the resiliency and reliability of the western U.S. electric grid by adding 3,000 megawatts of "backbone" transmission capacity connecting the Desert Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions.

The Bureau of Land Management and Western Area Power Administration were joint lead federal agencies for conducting and completing the environmental analysis for the TWE Project, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The USFS participated as a cooperating agency for the NEPA process.

The route identified in the USFS Record of Decision follows and aligns with the BLM and WAPA decisions. BLM's Record of Decision was released Dec. 13, 2016, which approved issuing a right-of-way grant for the TWE Project on BLM-managed land, representing about 60 percent of the 730-mile route. WAPA's Record of Decision was released Jan. 13, 2017.

The TWE Project route extends from south-central Wyoming, to the site of a potential interconnection near Delta, Utah, and then to the Marketplace Hub near Hoover Dam in southern Nevada, which provides interconnections to the California, Nevada and Arizona grids. TransWest has committed to hundreds of project-specific mitigation measures, best management practices and conservation actions designed to avoid, minimize and mitigate potential impacts of this infrastructure project to the environment.

The USFS final Record of Decision and related environmental analysis documents are available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=42526.

For more information about the TWE Project, visit www.transwestexpress.net.

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