By Brian Wright | Casa Grande Dispatch
A Pinal County-based renewable energy project that has been in the works for more than two years received a critical stamp of approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission on Wednesday, although the vote was not without controversy.
The ACC voted 3-2 to authorize construction of $2 billion transmission lines that would funnel energy from Lincoln County, New Mexico, to the Pinal Central Substation at Eleven Mile Corner, about 10 miles east of downtown Casa Grande. The 515-mile-long SunZia Southwest Transmission Project would connect there to other major lines to provide electricity to several markets in the Southwest. It would include two single-circuit 500-kilovolt transmission lines.