725-mile power line will be hidden behind 'uplift'

RAWLINS, Wyo. -- The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is looking for ways to hide a major transmission line project in southern Wyoming.

Sharon Knowlton is the BLM's manager of the TransWest project. She told Carbon County commissioners on Tuesday that the agency is looking at placing the line behind a natural "uplift" in the landscape to keep it out of view.

The Rawlins Daily Times reported that Knowlton has gotten 60 letters from people from the area opposing the project.

A subsidiary of the Anschutz Corp. has proposed building the 725-mile line through Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Nevada to deliver wind-generated power to southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The primary source of the power would be the 1,000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project near Rawlins.