Yesterday, Citizens Energy Task Force and Save Our Unique Lands filed a Complaint at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO), Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) and the CapX 2020 Applicant utilities had violated NERC reliability standards by approving the CapX 2020 Hampton-La Crosse transmission line in MTEP 08 when the knew or should have known that it would cause system instability and would not provide the transfer capability they wanted, that it wouldn’t do the job as claimed, that running a radial line to La Crosse would just bring transmission system instability to La Crosse.

Here’s the FERC Docket EL13-49-000 — CLICK HERE FOR NOTICE!

FERC Complaint – CETF and SOUL

It even made a USA Today online collection of energy news… but that was yesterday and they’ve moved on…

From La Crosse Tribune:

CapX 2020 line will create grid instability, according to opponents

In the Rochester Post Bulletin:

Citizens groups to challenge $500M CapX project

and in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Complaint: Stop Wisconsin link in CapX 2020 power line project

February 28, 2013 5:15 pm •  JUDY NEWMAN | Wisconsin State Journal | jdnewman@madison.com | 608-252-6156

Opponents of CapX2020, a series of more than 700 miles of high-voltage transmission lines from the Dakotas to Wisconsin, said Thursday they are filing a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to try to halt the Wisconsin link of the project.

Citizens Energy Task Force and Save Our Unique Lands said their complaint contends that the utilities developing CapX2020 knew that the 345-kilovolt lines’ final segment, from the Rochester, Minn., area to the La Crosse area, could create instability in the electrical grid in Wisconsin unless it hooked into a line of similar capacity.

Plans have been under development for several years for the Badger Coulee project, a proposed 345-kilovolt transmission line from the La Crosse area to Madison, separate from CapX2020. But the utility companies working on that project have not yet filed an application with state regulators.

“You don’t go forward and have one line approved if it is attendant on a line that hasn’t been approved,” said Debra Severson, Sparta, a member of both citizen groups filing the complaint.

The 48-mile, $211 million, high-voltage line from Minnesota to Wisconsin was approved by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission last May. Opponents filed a lawsuit seeking a court review of the decision, but Dane County Circuit Judge Amy Smith turned down the request last October saying the lawyer who filed the case is not licensed to practice in Wisconsin.