On October 20, my colleague Janet Jacobs reported that the U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") had offered a conditional commitment of $350 million to NV Energy, Inc. and Great Basin Transmission South, LLC, an affiliate of LS Power Group, for development of the 500-kV One Nevada Transmission Line (the "ON Line project").

Well, good news.

Two days ago, Secretary Chu announced that DOE had approved a $343 million loan guarantee for the ON Line project– the first of its kind for a transmission line.  The ON Line project will stretch 235 miles from Ely, Nevada to a substation just north of Las Vegas at a projected cost of $500 million.  As the first phase of a larger transmission infrastructure project, the ON Line will initially be able to transmit approximately 600 MW of otherwise landlocked renewable energy to load centers.  When the final phase of the project is completed, the line will be able to transmit approximately 2 GW (or 2,000 MW) of renewable electricity from Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada to serve customers in southern Nevada, California, and the rest of the Southwest.