State utility regulators are reconsidering the best route around Coolidge and Florence for a proposed massive electric transmission line.

A committee of state officials approved a last-minute compromise in May that would send the 500-kilovolt line looping around the south and east sides of Coolidge before returning to a northern path selected by the Salt River Project.

The compromise was reached between SRP, Florence and Coolidge officials, and several of the state’s largest homebuilders who are planning several new subdivisions between the two towns.

But the “backward C” configuration is being challenged by a developer and two existing subdivisions that want the entire line moved farther east and closer to Florence.

The Arizona Corporation Commission has been taking public comments on that issue and other concerns related to the 150-mile power line that eventually will reach from the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in western Maricopa county to east Mesa.

SRP applied to build the $250 million transmission line on behalf of a consortium of electric utilities seeking to deliver more power to rapidly growing areas of Pinal County and areas south of Mesa. —

Information from: East Valley Tribune/Scottsdale Tribune, http://www.aztrib.com

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