Province scraps mandatory environmental studies for power lines

New power lines in Alberta will no longer have to undergo environmental impact assessments.

Alberta Environment said 130-kilovolt transmission lines were already exempt from the studies, and the department has now extended the exemption to lines of 500 kilovolts and higher.

Most concerns over the transmission lines are usually related to routing, land management and health, which can now be dealt with through the Alberta Utilities Commission, Environment Minister Rob Renner said Wednesday.

Because of that process, he said there's no need for often lengthy and expensive environmental studies.

"As a result of these changes, resources can be better dedicated to other environmental issues," Renner said in a statement on Wednesday.

However, his office will retain the power to order an environmental impact assessment if it sees fit, and will continue to respond to landowner concerns during the construction, operation and removal of transmission lines.

The change comes as the province is about to receive proposals for about $10 billion in electricity generation projects and another $5 billion in transmission lines over the next decade.

AltaLink, which wants to build a large transmission line between Calgary and Edmonton, applauded the change, saying environmental impact assessments for every new project had become redundant.

"There isn't a big difference really between the impact and the footprint of a 500 kV line and the many, many 240 kV lines that have been built, and we have lots of good data and good experience in understanding how to mitigate those effects," AltaLink senior vice-president Leigh Clarke said Thursday.