A well known satellite photograph of the Korean Peninsula at night shows a brightly lit South immediately adjacent to the nearly prehistoric darkness of the North. More recently satellite pictures of the pre and post Katrina Gulf Coast defined the tragedy by where the lights went out. America is primarily an electric civilization. We adjust our lifestyles when gasoline gets scarce but we pretty much stop our lifestyles when the power is out.
In the 1990’s the Thompson Administration invested heavily in building roads in Wisconsin, because personal and commercial transportation is essential to a healthy economy. Beginning in 2001 Wisconsin restructured its Electric Industry, splitting off production from distribution with the latter controlled by the American Transmission Company. Wisconsin is now building the electric infrastructure that will keep TV’s on for the Packers and Badgers and computers online for the bloggers.
Arrowhead-Weston is a 220-mile transmission line connecting Duluth, Minn., with Wausau, Wis. The line is needed to accommodate electric load growth in northern Wisconsin and to improve reliability of the electric transmission system in the region. According to a study issued in 2002 by the US Department of Energy, Wisconsin’s transmission system has one of the most congested interfaces in the country. Building the Arrowhead-Weston line will add an important element to Wisconsin’s transmission infrastructure – it will bring much-needed reliability to a seriously constrained system.All large scale regional construction projects cause hardship for the individuals in their path. A good friend from college still holds a grudge against the power company that ran a transmission line through the rolling hills and sheep pastures of his childhood home. Eminent Domain is a cruel tool which is why I strongly oppose the mindless way it was expanded through the Kelo decision. Part of me sympathizes with the Active Opposition.
As you read this, American Transmission Company is mowing down farmer’s crops and cutting through woodlots along the right of way. Farmers who were counting on this year’s yields will have to wait for compensation if it ever comes, and landowners are witnessing their timber being stolen off of their land.The opposition is wrong in the sense that the fight is over, and the 4.5 million residents of Wisconsin will be better off even though 800 private land owners will be directly impacted. Nothing in this build is done without consideration of the impact on people and the environment, and three quarters of the line is being constructed over existing right of way easements. Links to Project Facts and Property Rights outline what has been done to limit and mitigate the harm of Eminent Domain, but like it or not, the most prosperous future for the majority is electronic.
We need you to help the residents of Marathon County defend their land, homes, and livelihoods against the Arrowhead-Weston Transmission line. Much of the power comes from massive hydroelectric dams that have flooded an area the size of the state of Minnesota, displacing the Pimicikamak Cree Nation from their traditional homeland. Landowners and others have exhausted every means within the system to stop the theft and destruction. However, the fight is just beginning.
