A major high-voltage transmission project that could help bring more electricity — including wind-generated power — from remote parts of Minnesota closer to the Twin Cities drew its first organized opposition Tuesday from a citizens group and environmentalists.

The project, called CapX 2020, calls for construction of three 345-kilovolt lines that could cost between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion and a fourth, smaller line farther north to be added later.
The lines would run between Fargo, N.D., and the St. Cloud area; between Brookings, S.D., and the southeast edge of the Twin Cities; and from the southern edge of Dakota County through Rochester to La Crosse, Wis.

Eleven utilities, led by Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy and Great River Energy of Maple Grove, back the project, saying the transmission lines are necessary to meet projected regional growth, including in Rochester and St. Cloud.

The opponents, however, say the project will cost upwards of $2 billion and turn into an expensive boondoggle for customers.

At a Tuesday press conference held at the State Office Building, Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, joined a southeast Minnesota group called Citizens Energy Task Force to say the utilities overestimated the needs of the region and could not prove that the new high-voltage lines were specifically needed for their areas.

The opponents do support wind energy, but they fear the high-voltage lines will be used by the utilities to bring in power generated from coal-fired plants in South Dakota near the state line, where just such a plant, called Big Stone II, is planned for near Milbank.

Backers of Big Stone II are seeking approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to build their own power lines from South Dakota into Minnesota.

But if those lines are rejected, the fear is Big Stone II would piggyback on the CapX 2020 lines instead, said Paula Maccabee, attorney for the Citizens Energy Task Force.

“What does Minnesota get? We get the pollution,” she said.

Xcel Energy and the utilities conceded that the timing of their initial forecasts of demand may have been off, but they believe energy needs will grow and the transmission lines need to be built now, said Jim Alders, Xcel’s director of regulatory administration.

A federal law requires transmission lines to accept electricity from all sources, so the utilities cannot reserve a portion of the lines for only wind power, Alders said.

However, renewable energy advocates want the PUC to put conditions on the project that would ensure the utilities would use the lines to transmit wind power, said Beth Soholt, executive director of Wind on the Wires, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Minnesota utilities must generate 25 percent of their electricity using a clean, renewable resource like wind by 2025, and Xcel Energy must generate 30 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

The transmission project has divided Minnesota’s environmental community into two camps.

Groups like the North America Water Office and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance oppose the project, saying that better technology soon will make large transmission projects like CapX 2020 outmoded, while Wind on the Wires and a group including Fresh Energy, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the Isaak Walton League, support the project.

There have been a series of hearings around the state over the past several months on CapX 2020.

This fall, an administrative law judge will review all evidence submitted on the proposal and report to the PUC on whether the project is needed.