CETF’s Deb Severson on WPR
From Deb Severson:
Today’s (5/15) WPR Newsmakers covered Badger Coulee and provided an opportunity for commentary. Â While heard in SW WI, the statewide website carries the link for others to listen:
http://www.wpr.org/badger-coulee-transmission-line-project
- ATC is first
- PSC second
- Commentary third beginning at around 29 minutes (move the button vs fast forward if you want to go there)
It is worth noting that Matt Johnson’s extremely strong and well done editorial in the Vernon Broadcaster hit many of the same themes:
In Cooperation, Deb
Matt’s Editorial_________________________________________________________
It is part of a spider web of other similar lines. It is not to benefit those who live near it. It is a mechanism by which utilities can “trade†electricity.
Why create enormous electrical transmission infrastructure at a time when less electricity is being used and the overwhelming trend is to create renewable local energy sources?
Toss out whatever cliché you wish – the 800-pound gorilla in the corner, give it the duck test, identify the elephant in the room – at the end of the day, an unnecessary $550 million power line is still an unnecessary $550 million power line.
Examining the documents leading up to this moment is a nightmare of tedium. You can find all of the formal documents on the PSC’s website http://psc.wi.gov under the case No. “5-CE-142.†Dating back to 2010 there are more than 350 documents, diagrams, attachments, figures, etc., on this list. None of them reasonably state why the line is needed.
There are cheerleaders for the Badger Coulee line — those who would profit from its construction. This includes the restaurant association and numerous trade unions for whom its construction would provide jobs. We can all agree that restaurants need to serve food and people in the trades need jobs. But they don’t need to get them by building an enormous, unnecessary electrical line.
More importantly, electrical rate payers do not deserve to pay 40 years’ worth of rate hikes for an unnecessary transmission line.
We live in a world where electrical rate payers are buying out solar farms — such as that offered recently at Vernon Electric in Westby. People understand and agree that they want local, renewable, clean energy sources. The Badger Coulee Line is a $550 million 20th century square peg that is being jammed into a 21st century vaporizing round hole.
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