Groups Fight Wisconsin Transmission Line

February 12, 2021

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by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy)Conservation groups on Wednesday sued over the federal government’s approval of the 102-mile, $500 million Cardinal-Hickory Creek high-voltage transmission line that would carry electricity from renewables from Iowa to Wisconsin. The suit argues that the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service's environmental study didn't properly consider alternatives and that the Fish and Wildlife Service unlawfully granted a right-of-way through a refuge. READ MORE

Conservation Groups Sue Feds To Block $500M Power Line (Law360)

Researchers examined multiple strategies for achieving net-zero emissions (Politico's Morning Energy)

Wisc. Judge Blocks $500M Power Line From Wildlife Refuge (Law360)

Clean Energy Projects Are Stuck in a Years-Long Queue. Maryland and Neighboring States Are Pushing for a Fix -- The Moore administration supports a recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order intended to help states achieve clean energy targets. The region’s grid operator wants FERC to reconsider. (Inside Climate News)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Researchers examined multiple strategies for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and concluded that the most cost-effective option has similar near-term targets as the recent National Academies study that advocated for increasing deployment of renewables, switching to electric vehicles and furnaces and building new transmission lines. (That NAS study also said the switch would require “unprecedented funding.”) READ MORE

Excerpt from Law360:

A $500 million Midwest transmission line faces an uncertain future after a Wisconsin federal judge said building it would violate wildlife refuge protections, an order that essentially barred developers from the path they've been banking on.

U.S. District Judge William M. Conley on Tuesday vacated federal approvals that would have allowed the Cardinal-Hickory Creek Project to run through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, after initially finding in January that the reviews violated the standards of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act.

The CHC Project is a proposed 102-mile high-voltage transmission line in the Midwest that was proposed as a way of connecting parts of Milwaukee and Chicago to cheap wind power by connecting Dubuque, Iowa, to southwestern Wisconsin.

Judge Conley's order doubled down on the sentiments he laid out in January — that the developers, a group of utilities that include American Transmission LLC, Dairyland Power Cooperative and ITC Midwest, had "suspiciously" attempted to request different forms of approval for the project's path through the refuge after conservation groups filed suit last year. He also said the federal agencies seemed to be "working hand-in-glove" with those utilities to ensure the developers got what they wanted.

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"Given these facts, plaintiffs contend, and the court finds credible, that the utilities are pushing forward with construction on either side of the Refuge, even without an approved path through the Refuge, in order to make any subsequent challenge to a Refuge crossing extremely prejudicial to their sunk investment," Judge Conley said, noting that any losses in that instance would then be passed along to ratepayers.

Judge Conley's ruling comes after a coalition of environmental groups initiated two lawsuits last year, one in February against the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and another in May that named the Army Corps of Engineers. The suits were consolidated in July.

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The consolidated suits are National Wildlife Refuge Association et al. v. Rural Utilities Service et al., case number 3:21-cv-00096, and National Wildlife Refuge Association et al. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers et al., case number 3:21-cv-00306, both in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. READ MORE