According to the Observer Dispatch, 11 different environmental groups have sued the Department of Energy over a 2005 law that allows the federal government to approve electricity transmission line construction within designated "energy corridors", even if states decline.

The groups have alleged that the DOE's corridor designations violate current federal environmental regulations by failing to require an adequate environmental impact study when these corridor designations are made.

So far, the DOE has designated a mid-Atlantic corridor, which includes a large swath of New York state, and another one in the Southwest.

The plaintiffs include The National Wildlife Federation, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Environmental Advocates of New York, Clean Air Council, Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, Civil War Preservation Trust, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Brandywine Conservancy and National Lands Trust.