BUTTE, Mont. (AP) – The Bureau of Land Management has withdrawn its preferred alternative plan for a proposed power line traveling through western Montana and into Idaho, an official says.

Tim Bozorth, field manager for the BLM, said the agency withdrew the plan because it's more than a year old and during that time new cultural and visual concerns arose.

“We're taking that off the table,” he told the Montana Standard in a story published Saturday.

NorthWestern Energy wants to use the proposed Mountain States Transmission Intertie utility line to carry power generated from renewable resources in Broadwater County through southwestern Montana and into Idaho to provide electricity for Western states.

A draft environmental review of the 500-kilovolt line that would run from Townsend, Mont., to near Twin Falls, Idaho, has been stalled by litigation.

Bozorth said the agency is talking with local government entities in Montana and American Indian tribes about other alternative routes. He said he plans to meet with officials in Idaho next month.

In Montana, the agency has already met with leaders in Broadwater County, Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Jefferson, Madison and Beaverhead counties.

“My stance all along has been keeping it on public land wherever possible instead of on private,” said Dave Palmer, council chairman for Butte-Silver-Bow, where officials are also scheduled to meet with BLM about the line.

Bozorth said at upcoming meetings he'll discuss new information that could allow the new power line to be built within a few hundred feet, as opposed to 2,000 feet, of an existing Bonneville Power Administration transmission line.

He said a recent study determined the new line could be built nearer the BPA line, which would reduce some private property problems in Jefferson County.

“It just makes it a lot more attractive potentially,” he said.

Bozorth said comments collected at recent and upcoming meetings will be used when the BLM chooses another preferred route for the transmission line.

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Information from: The Montana Standard, http://www.mtstandard.com