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DUPLICATE

Please get this done ASAP. Our country needs more domestic energy and less red tape getting it.

I have the utmost confidence that BPA will do everything it can to placate the many different interests. I believe that this upgrade is driven by the Eastern Montana wind projects so they have access to the I-5 corridor in Washington and Oregon.  Please make sure that the costs of this project is recovered from these that are requiring it and not from Preference Customers!

Thank you for your work!

Please have your studies look at the impacts to adjoining landowners. 

I need more information about will this project require any additional right of way? 

We appreciate your efforts to improve the power grid so we can all have available power at an affordable price.

Any of the potential substation locations will not affect my property, as they are not within my view.

Thank you for the information.

I am a two-term Montana State Representative, currently running for a Montana Senate seat in a district where I won the primary with strong numbers just a month ago.  My Senate district includes the Miller Creek area where, I understand, a new substation as large as 40 acres may be built to support the M2W Project.  I am writing in strong support of expediting the review and approval of the M2W Project.

 As you know, Montana has been rapidly developing wind projects.  Montana wind is abundant and strong, better, I’m told than Oregon, Washington, and several other states.  Montana wind is attractive for the Northwest because our winds peak during the day and in the winter and can therefore augment the Gorge winds that peak in the spring and summer and tend to blow at night.  I am proud of the exceptional work the BPA has done in demonstrating wind energy works!  Montanans want to be part of developing a carbon-neutral and reliable energy future for the Northwest.

Montana has struggled with issues surrounding rights-of-way for new transmission lines.  The M2W project involves no location of new transmission lines and no significant environmental impacts that necessitate protracted environmental studies and public review processes.  Existing lines will be used!  Existing substations can be expanded with minimal impacts. 

Missoula and Ravalli counties are growing and will need more energy.  Northwestern Energy owns the land where a new substation could be built.  Missoulians are strong supporters of alternative energy and, I believe, will ultimately support incurring impacts from a new substation to support wind energy development in our state.  We will work with developers to minimize impacts involved with construction of a new substation, make sure the surrounding area is returned to its original condition, and mitigate ongoing impacts with trees and natural screening to reduce visual impacts.

Montana needs the temporary construction jobs that can employ students from our alternative energy college programs, the permanent jobs that will be created in rural areas, the local property tax increases, and the lease payments to landowners.  We are a rural state in need of diversification.  As our constitution states, we treasure our clean and healthful environment.  Use of Montana’s clean, renewable wind is critically important to our state, to the education of our citizens and jobs for the future.

I read that BPA spokesperson Teresa Waugh estimates the M2W project will cost between $115 and $125 million compared to the $1 billion cost of MSTI.  Teresa noted the M2W project will provide 520 megawatts of additional capacity, enough to power 500,000 homes.  This project is important to Montana and to the Northwest.  I encourage you to do all you can to expedite its review.

In your response to these comments, please outline the benefits to Missoula County especially in terms of potential payments in lieu of taxes should the substation be built in our county.  I look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you.