The public comment period for a long-delayed draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for major energy transmission corridors in 11 Western states is open. The potential designations of corridors - which would be conduits for natural gas, oil, electricity, and hydrogen - technically affect only federal lands, but they will strongly influence alignments on adjacent lands under other ownerships.

The corridors have evolved to this point after some public input was provided to the five participating federal agencies - the BLM and the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, and Defense. But the information available during that period was very generalized. The draft PEIS includes substantially more detail, including alignments documented on 47 maps.

The 90-day public comment period closes Feb. 14, 2008. Public meetings will be held:

• Jan. 8, 2008: Portland, OR
• Jan. 8: Sacramento, CA
• Jan. 10: Seattle, WA
• Jan. 10: Ontario, CA
• Jan. 15: Phoenix, AZ
• Jan. 15: Grand Junction, CO
• Jan. 17: Las Vegas, NV
• Jan. 17: Salt Lake City, UT
• Jan. 23: Window Rock, AZ
• Jan. 24: Albuquerque, NM
• Jan. 29: Helena, MT
• Jan. 29: Cheyenne, WY
• Jan. 31: Boise, ID
• Jan. 31: Denver, CO
• Feb. 5: Washington, DC

For more information:

• West-wide Energy Corridor Programmatic EIS Information Center. [2]
• TipSheet of May 9, 2007. [3]