Judge Boots Environmentalists’ Challenge|To Southwestern Electricity Corridor

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A federal judge has dismissed with prejudice the Center for Biological Diversity's challenge of the Southwest portion of the Department of Energy's National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, for lack of jurisdiction. The Southwest NIETC covers seven counties in Southern California and three in southwestern Arizona.

The NIETCs, created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, are meant to help regions whose electricity delivery systems are critically congested.

The Center for Biological Diversity claimed the Southwest NIETC would violate the Endangered Species Act. But U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz found that the environmental group "failed to show that jurisdiction in this court is proper." He granted the Energy Department's motion to dismiss with prejudice.

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