Fate of Transmission Line in Limbo
A proposed electricity transmission line over La Veta Pass is facing uncertainty after Xcel Energy threatened to walk away from the project. Xcel would like to see public money used to help finance the Southern Colorado Transmission Line Project.
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will soon decide whether to approve a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) application for the transmission line. Conditions placed on the CPCN by administrative law judge Mana Jennings-Fader would require Xcel to repay 50% of the project’s cost to its customers if the new line does not carry at least 700 megawatts of energy generated in Southern Colorado within ten years of operation.
The transmission line was originally intended to carry electricity generated by solar energy facilities in the San Luis Valley.
In an editorial dated Jan. 18, The Denver Post stated that the PUC should allow Xcel to “walk away” from the project, as the judge’s ruling stressed the line no longer has to carry only renewable energy and the point of the additional transmission line was to help boost solar energy development.
The owner of Trinchera Ranch, a 172,000 acre development on La Veta Pass, claims the project would ruin a “pristine” section of landscape and has proposed that the line be run on existing transmission lines over Poncha Pass to the north.
Water Proposal met with Opposition
State Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland and State Sen. Gayle Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, are taking comments from Valley water users on a proposal to allow substitute water supply plans in the San Luis Valley.
The proposal has generated opposition from owners of senior surface-rights who fear their rights are in jeopardy, according to The Pueblo Chieftain.
The first version of the voluntary plan, Subdistrict #1, is under review by the Colorado State Supreme Court. If approved it would allow subdistrict members to purchase surface water to offset the pumping of nearly 6,000 groundwater wells in the Valley.
Baca EIS Released
A draft environmental assessment of proposed exploration of potential oil and gas resources on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge is now available, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The document is available for public review, and comments will be accepted until February 7. It can be found at: www.fws.gov/alamosa/bacaNWR.html
I was under the impression that part of the reason the new transmission line was needed is that the SLV has only one, very old line that comes in from the North. If that goes Kaput, it’s lights out in the ENTIRE Valley, including the farms.