Excel Energy, Dairyland Power and nine other utilities (CAPX2020) are proposing a 345kV ultra high voltage power line crossing from Minnesota to Alma, Wisconsin and then running either south or east to Madison. Most of the power line will be built by the American Transmission Company. The power line towers will be 15+ stories tall and have a right of way of 150 feet, which will be cleared by eminent domain and maintained by herbicides. Continue reading

Original date: June 13, 2011

Owners of land that sits in the way of a highway or power line project would have a harder time challenging a government takeover of their property if a proposal inserted into the state budget becomes law, property rights advocates say. The measure, adopted on a 12-4 party-line vote by the Legislature’s Republican-dominated budget-writing committee, pits the state Department of Transportation and power-line builder American Transmission Co. against property rights advocates and lawyers.

Continue reading

Original date: June 13, 2011

Owners of land that sits in the way of a highway or power line project would have a harder time challenging a government takeover of their property if a proposal inserted into the state budget becomes law, property rights advocates say.

Continue reading

Original date: April 6, 2011

The Minnesota Department of Commerce on Wednesday objected to Xcel Energy Inc.’s proposed rate increases, saying the utility needs far less to operate. The department’s Office of Energy Security recommended knocking down by $107 million, or more than half, the planned increase of $198 million.

Continue reading

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission(PSC) says an application for high-voltage power lines that would cross the Mississippi River at Alma is incomplete.  In a letter February 1 to 11 utility companies that make up the CapX2020 partnership, the PSC says the application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity is incomplete due to "missing, or inaccurate information." Continue reading

Original date: February 8, 2011

Continue reading

State regulators want more information before they will further consider CapX2020’s application to route a
high-voltage line through three western Wisconsin counties.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin recently sent the energy company consortium a three-page list
containing almost 100 data requests on the proposed project, which would extend in the state from Alma to a
substation to be built in the town of Onalaska.

The requests range from updated cost estimates for the plan and any alternative routes to potential effects on Continue reading