MATL power line clears last major hurdle

The decision to issue a presidential permit for the project is published today in the Federal Register, said Tony Como, the DOE’s director of permitting and siting.
The permit will be issued any day now that the record of decision is out, he said.
The permit was the final major regulatory approval developer Tonbridge Power needed to construct the 214-mile line.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which owns land where a tiny stretch of the project must cross, still must issue its OK, but the state of Montana, which had to approve a construction permit, signed off last month and Canadian authorities previously OK’d the 230-kilovolt project.

“Generally speaking, all of the impacts are low,” Como said.

Approval follows three years of study of the environmental impacts.

The impact on farmers and their operations was the most studied issue in a two-volume environmental impact statement, Como said.

Montana’s transmission capacity is about all used up and three wind farm developer that have purchased the primary capacity on the line have snatched up all of the available space on the MATL line. NaturEner, which recently completed the first phase of the Glacier Wind Farm between Shelby and Cut Bank, has said future expansion plans depended on approval of MATL.

Secondary capacity could be sold to other forms of electrical generation including coal- or natural gas-fired facilities.

The cumulative impacts of the wind farms, another concern raised during the review, are addressed in the environmental analysis. But Como said the transmission line’s construction doesn’t guarantee the wind farms will be built, and approval of the line and the wind farms that might follow are separate actions.
MATL would be the first “merchant” transmission in the state in which a private company, not an electric utility that produces power, constructs a line and sells the shipping space.

“It’s a private toll road,” Como said.

See Tuesday’s Tribune for more details