We're being given the line on power project
Curt Andersen
Green Bay News-Chronicle - June 21, 2000
Residents of Wisconsin's western frontier are fighting to keep a
345-kilovolt transmission line, called the Arrowhead-Weston Project,
from going through their yards, cottages and farms.
The 250-mile line will stretch from Duluth-Superior to Wausau, where it
will connect with the existing power grid. It will damage 4,500 acres of
private land, sensitive wetlands, vacation property and farmland.
Power companies have been telling us the power is "needed" in northern
Wisconsin, which is growing in population. Actually, the electricity
will be carried from a Manitoba dam through Duluth-Superior for further
delivery to the lucrative Illinois market. This line should be called
the Manitoba/Duluth-Superior/Illinois Extension Cord.
Even if a case could be made for running this power line from one place
to another, some questionable moves make me wonder what they aren't
telling us.
First, this line was put on a fast track both in Minnesota and
Wisconsin. Minnesota Power applied for a permit of exemption, that is,
to avoid an environmental impact statement. Was it afraid of what that
statement would show? This is the largest transmission line to be built
in Wisconsin in the last 30 years, yet when utilities proposed the
project, they wanted to rush through public hearings and begin
construction by March 2000. What's the big rush?
Second, as reported by Wisconsin Public Radio on June 14, information
filed with the state Public Service Commission by utilities is
"confidential." To see the information, one has to sign a nondisclosure
agreement, which would then prevent that person from sharing it with his
group members or using it to make a case. This is going in for review,
but it is a roadblock for opponents of the Arrowhead-Weston Project now.
Third, in the draft environmental impact statement, the PSC has
estimated the use of gas-fired combustion turbines constructed where
they're needed would cost about the same as the Arrowhead-Weston line,
based on today's prices.
Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Energy has stated that within the
next few years, as early as 2003, hydrogen fuel cells and gas-fired
microturbines will change the way we approach energy delivery.
Customers will be able to move from the utility's meter to these less
expensive and environmentally sound methods of energy production. Long
transmission lines will become obsolete.
Utilities are not happy with this twist of fate. Down go their billings.
The PSC received more than 10,000 letters opposing the line, in spite of
a big push by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. exhorting business
customers to write to the PSC and tell them how much we need this line
for the future, blah, blah, blah. Eight of the eleven counties that are
impacted by this line have passed resolutions against it.
At the recent WPS annual meeting, CEO Larry Weyers assured stockholders
the line would follow an environmentally sound route, yet it will affect
11,500 landowners who will be "asked" to give up a 150 foot right of
way.
Look at your own lot and imagine how that might cramp your style. Add to
this ugly picture the idea of getting to rural areas for repairs to
downed lines in the middle of wetlands normally accessible only in
winter.
Power companies call it Power Up, Wisconsin. It should really be called
Up Yours, Wisconsin.
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