A $1.5 billion project to bury a 1-foot-thick and 100-mile-long high voltage power transmission line under the Columbia River turned down fast-tracked federal permitting approval offered by a Trump administration executive order earlier this summer.

Although the Cascade Renewable Transmission System project will move through a slower federal permitting process, it has to wait for permits from Oregon and Washington anyway. But this track may avoid alienating the two blue states.

“We chose to go with the standard process,” said Chris Hocker, the project’s lead and a senior vice president for PowerBridge, the project’s parent company.

“We felt that simply asking for this expedited approval wouldn’t necessarily have any impact on what the states would be doing in terms of their review aut

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