WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has taken a major step to ease future blackouts by designating specific areas as critical to the nation's energy grid.

It's seen as a step toward construction of new power lines in ten Southwest and mid-Atlantic states.

Officials who've been briefed on the boundaries described them to The Associated Press, while the Energy Department outlined its decision on the finalized corridors to congressional offices today.

The only real change from the original plan is that Nevada was dropped from the Southwest corridor.

The finalized mid-Atlantic corridor runs from Virginia, Washington and much of Maryland, and also includes all of New Jersey and Delaware, along with large sections of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

In New York, the corridor plan has generated opposition from local leaders fighting a proposed power line running nearly 200 miles from the Utica area to the more populous suburbs north of New York City.