Without publicly disclosing it, federal officials pushed the planned pathway of a major NV Energy transmission line out of the way of a potential Southern Nevada mining site — drawing the consternation of conservation watchdog groups, who have previously raised concerns that the line will run through a national monument boundary.
The flexibility of the BLM to adapt for the potential mine but not for the national monument paints a poor picture of what the BLM prioritizes, said Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of Basin and Range Watch, who obtained the minutes of the conference calls through a public records request and shared them with the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite requests by groups to reroute the transmission line around TUSK, the BLM chose a route that intentionally directed the transmission line through the monument.