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Canadian Approval Granted to Canada-U.S. Merchant Power Line The first private power line to connect the province of Alberta, Canada to the U.S. was given final approval by the provincial regulator in August.
The proposed line would move electricity back and forth between Lethbridge, Alberta and a substation near Great Falls, Montana.
Last year the project was approved by the National Energy Board and given tentative approval by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, pending the project company’s success in establishing a dispute-resolution process for landowners along the project’s proposed route.
In granting final approval, the regulator indicated that stipulation had been satisfied and that an “on-going consultative, interest-based dispute resolution process” was in place.
However, as recently as July a group of landowners was given permission to appeal the project’s eventual approval.
The project’s parent company, Toronto-based Tonbridge Power Inc., has stated that it will respect landowner concerns and would move forward with the project while taking “significant care to be an outstanding corporate citizen.”
The company is still awaiting a joint final environmental impact assessment from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality before it can begin surveying and preliminary construction on secured land. As a merchant power line, transmission capacity would be sold at market rates to shippers wanting to move power between the U.S. and Canada. The line would be the first such power transmission line between Alberta and Montana. Return to September 2008 Western Energy News To sponsor Western Energy News , please contact WEI at 503 231-1994.
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