In a rare move that could delay progress on NV Energy’s large-scale transmission line planned for the Highway 50 corridor, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has ordered its Nevada office to address some environmental groups’ protests against the project.

In May, the BLM’s Nevada State Office released its environmental report for the Greenlink North project, as well as a proposed amendment to the resource management plan for the area. Various conservation and wildlife groups and Lander County immediately filed three administrative objections to the report, which needs to be finalized before construction can begin on the multibillion dollar project. 

Protesters raised nine issues, and last month, the federal BLM sided with them on four.

“All of the protest letters contained a valid protest issue,” according to the federal BLM.

The federal agency remanded the protest areas back to Nevada State BLM Director John Raby “for consideration, clarification, further planning, or other appropriate action to resolve this protest issue.”

The protests include how the project would affect greater sage-grouse populations, a species in a sharp decline that has flirted with a listing on the federal endangered species list. Currently, under certain conditions, high-voltage transmission lines must be excluded from critical sage-grouse habitat areas; the project is proposed to cut through 162 miles of critical habitat.  

“Instead of conforming to the existing resource management plans across central Nevada, BLM is pushing to amend plans and ram this huge transmission project through important sage-grouse areas,” according to Laura Cunningham, California director of Western Watersheds Project.

The decision by the federal BLM to side with the protesters is rare, said Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of conservation group Basin and Range Watch. Emmerich estimates he has filed more than 50 protests with the bureau, but this is the first to succeed.

Greenlink North is a proposed 525 kilovolt transmission line slated to span from Ely to near Yerington, including the construction of two new substations. It would run along Highway 50, one of the most remote and undeveloped areas in the nation.

The area is “one of the most unspoiled and stunning regions of the Great Basin,” Emmerich said.  

The project is one piece of a three-prong transmission line that will span the state. At completion, it would connect to the still-under-construction Greenlink West, running from Reno to Las Vegas, and the One Nevada transmission line, which runs from Ely to Las Vegas.

Greenlink West, which is under construction, is expected to be in service by May 2027. Construction of Greenlink North is slated to begin in January 2027, with the line in service by late 2028. 

A final record of decision on the project was originally slated to be issued in October; now, the state BLM will need to draft a supplemental environmental impact statement. Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Nevada Independent that the process could take months. 

“This is a major delay,” he said.

NV Energy spokesperson Meghin Delaney said in an email that project approval and permits are on schedule to be completed before the 2027 construction date. 

“Our team is monitoring the process closely and will make any necessary adjustments to meet the project’s in-service date without sacrificing safety or quality,” Delaney wrote.

Sage-grouse protections and visual effects at issue

While Greenlink started as a project to align with 2019 legislation calling for the construction of a high-powered transmission line in the state, it has grown into a sprawling utility corridor — more than 100,000 acres of solar and wind energy applications have been submitted along the Greenlink North route.

Protesters argued that the combination of the transmission line and ensuing energy development around the corridor will harm the region’s imperiled greater sage-grouse, as well as damage the scenic nature of the region. 

The four areas in which the feds agreed with the protesters are:

• Visual resources: Protesters argued the state BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act by failing to consider the project’s effects on the area’s visual resources. The agency does not have regulations covering the management of visual resources on public lands; instead, the agency uses internal guidance.

“We have been asking the BLM to be in better compliance with their own visual resource management guidelines for 15 years,” Emmerich told The Indy. “This is the first time they actually listened in Nevada.”

• Avoidable degradation: Protesters argued that the “BLM failed to examine in detail any alternative that would meaningfully reduce impacts to greater sage-grouse.” The feds agreed, stating that the existing Greenlink North documents do “not offer an explanation of whether the proposed … amendments to greater sage-grouse management will cause unnecessary or undue degradation.”
• Conformance to planning regulations: Protesters claimed that Greenlink North’s existing environmental documents do not conform with the underlying land use plans, including guiding documents for management of greater sage-grouse.
• Failure to consider alternatives: The groups claim that the state BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider a reasonable range of alternatives, including taking a different route than the one proposed by NV Energy, as well as changes to seasonal restrictions on sage-grouse winter range.

“Not far to the north, a rail line and Interstate 80 already traverse this east-west route with major disturbances that would absorb a transmission line seemingly unnoticed to wildlife,” representatives of Lander County wrote. “The failure to prioritize such alternatives in the planning process reflects inadequate consideration of less harmful options.”