A hearing is set for today in Salt Lake City for a major environmental study of public lands in the West suitable for new oil and gas pipelines and electricity transmission.

The Department of Energy, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, will hold sessions at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. today at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel, 150 W. 500 South, Salt Lake City. The meetings are open to the public.

Federal, state, local and tribal governments, energy companies, businesses, landowners and the general public are invited to comment as part of a programmatic environmental impact statement that will assess proposals to modernize the electric transmission and distribution grid and build new oil and gas pipelines.

The statement also would address needs such as access and maintenance roads, compressors and pumping stations.

The environmental study is required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the federal Energy Policy Act enacted Aug. 8, which in part aimed to speed permits and eliminate redundancy in the environmental review process.

The other states designated for the multipurpose energy corridors are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

The DOE meetings will be informal, with a presiding officer who is to ensure that everyone who wants to speak will get a chance to do so. Comments also may be submitted in writing.

Designation of segments of Western energy corridors on federal lands will require changes to several established land-use plans. The designations will be made with the understanding that energy distribution is the most appropriate use of the land corridors.

That does not, however, automatically authorize construction activities. Proposals for new pipelines, transmission lines or utility retrofits would be analyzed in separate environmental studies that also would involve public participation.

More information about the scoping sessions and the environmental study is available on the Internet at http://corridoreis.anl.gov.

- Patty Henetz