Federal draft environmental impact statement and State of Montana supplemental draft environmental impact statement for the Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. (MATL) 230-kV transmission line

MATL proposes to construct and operate a merchant 230-kV transmission line between Great Falls, Montana, and Lethbridge, Alberta, that would cross the U.S.-Canada border north of Cut Bank, Montana. The transmission line would transmit 300 megawatts (MW) of electric power south and 300 MW north. In order to build and operate the line, MATL must first obtain a Presidential permit from DOE to cross the U.S.-Canada border, a certificate of compliance from the Montana DEQ to construct the line in Montana, and a right-of-way grant from the BLM to cross any BLM-administered lands. In March 2007, DOE and DEQ prepared a joint document that was a Draft Environmental Assessment for DOE and a Draft EIS for DEQ. Based largely on the public comments received on the March 2007 document, DOE determined that an EIS was the appropriate level of review. For the same reasons, DEQ decided to prepare a supplement to its Draft EIS. The Notice of Intent to prepare this Federal Draft EIS was published on June 7, 2007 (72 FR 31569). This EIS analyzes the "No Action" alternative, three alternative transmission line alignments, and 11 local routing options. This EIS will be used by DOE, DEQ, and BLM to ensure that they have the environmental information needed to render informed decisions.