Citizens Energy Task Force

… for a sustainable energy future

Proposed power line has generated lots of heated opposition

Posted on | September 8, 2008 |

That’s the headline in yesterday’s La Crosse Tribune. Here’s an excerpt, quoting Citizens Energy Task Force attorney Paula Maccabee.

“The utilities have been stacking the deck to make it look like this project is needed,” Maccabee said, “but once you get behind the data, you see how it’s not true.”

If the Twin Cities-Rochester-La Crosse line were not built, she said, power company officials have testified that enhancements to the current transmission lines would not be needed until 2026 or 2028 in Rochester.

“And that’s without studying the conservation aspects,” Maccabee said. “The benefits are not clear and certainly have been exaggerated, and the harms are unavoidable.”

Minnesota State Rep Ken Tschumper also made some good points.

“If we go to more renewables, we don’t need this expensive high-voltage system,” Minnesota state Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, said during a forum he organized July 31 at La Crescent’s American Legion for those concerned with CapX2020.

“Renewable systems can feed into the grid as well,” he said.

It’s also the law, Tschumper said, as Minnesota passed a renewable energy standard in 2007 mandating 25 percent of all electricity used in the state be generated from renewable energy sources by 2025.

Renewables are a very important part of meeting future resource needs, Xcel spokesman Brian Elwood said, but the company still needs sufficient transmission lines in order to get the resources to the customers.

Eleven percent of Xcel’s electricity now is generated from renewable sources, Elwood said, and by 2025 Xcel expects 25 percent to 30 percent of its electricity will come from wind energy, along with other renewable resources such as biomass, hydropower, and burning garbage and wastewood.

Read the whole article here. Don’t forget to scroll down and leave a comment.

And then, please, write to Judge Heydinger!

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    The Citizens Energy Task Force (CETF) is a coalition of neighbors and citizens concerned about the proposed CapX2020 high voltage transmission lines in Minnesota and Wisconsin. As a legally registered "intervening party" in the CapX2020 permitting process, we represent the concerns of citizens who question the need for these particular high voltage power lines, and who support clean, sustainable, locally-generated power sources.

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