Almost 20 years ago, after the 2001 SW MN 345 kV line (01-1958) opened the floodgates, and after the 2005 legislative changes to Certificate of Need and Transmission siting laws, many utilities jointly applied for Big Stone transmission — PUC Dockets CN-05-619 and TL-05-1275. Here’s the map:

Let’s take a look at what’s proposed for Big Stone-Alexandria-Big Oaks, CN-22-538, TL-23-159:

The western end of this is looking familiar… these folks have to go through this AGAIN?