Rural Utilities Service February 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency which administers the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Utilities Programs (USDA Rural Development), is issuing a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Highwood Generating Station (HGS). The Final EIS was prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (U.S.C. 4231 et seq.) in accordance with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR 15001508) and RUS regulations (7 CFR 1794). This document has been prepared jointly with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), which has its own statutory mandates to analyze potential environmental impacts under the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) (75-1-101 et seq., MCA and ARM 17.4.601 et seq.) and to issue permits under the Montana Clean Air Act, Montana Clean Water Act, and Montana Solid Waste Management Act. USDA Rural Development invites comments on the Final EIS. The purpose of the EIS is to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of and alternatives to the Southern Montana Electric Transmission & Generation Cooperative, Inc. (SME) application to USDA Rural Development for a loan guarantee to construct a 250 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant near Great Falls, Montana. SME also proposes to construct and operate four, 1.5-MW wind turbines at the proposed project site to generate supplemental electrical power.