Meeting the West's Growing Energy Demands

Governors are working together to ensure the West meet its growing energy demands. Of great importance will be the development of transmission expansion plans for the West that facilitate development of new renewable energy resources while minimizing impacts to wildlife and water supplies. 

WGA, the Western Interstate Energy Board and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council are analyzing transmission requirements under a broad range of alternative energy futures and developing long-term, interconnection-wide transmission expansion plans. The purpose of this Regional Transmission Expansion Project is to inform private sector decisions on where to build new transmission not to control the decision making process.

As part of that effort WGA is analyzing the potential impacts of industrial and commercial energy efficiency programs, plug-in electric vehicles, and the expansion of nuclear energy in the West on the electrical transmission system. 

Landscape-scale Wildlife Conservation

States are working across political boundaries to enhance landscape-scale wildlife conservation through the Western Governors' Wildlife Council.  During WGA's Annual Meeting in June, the Governors committed their state agencies to completing wildlife decision-support systems within three years.  The governors have been working to conserve crucial wildlife habitat and corridors through their Wildlife Council, which has brought states together for the first time to coordinate their data and produce more accurate wildlife counts and maps.

More information can be found under the Wildlife Corridors and Crucial Habitat Initiative.