Assembly Bills 437 and 441 demonstrate the lengths to which some legislators will go to do the utilities’ bidding.
Power politics
By
Katie Nekola
We hear a lot of whining from the utility companies these days about how it has become impossible to build power plants and transmission lines in Wisconsin. This is untrue, but the whining is nonetheless the basis for changing our state's siting laws in order to make life easier for the utilities.
On May 24, the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee heard public testimony on Assembly Bill 437, Representative Phil Montgomery’s proposed legislation that would change Chapter 196 of the state statutes to require counties and other municipalities to convey land interests to any public utility that has received a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Public Service Commission. This legislation is nothing other than a direct response to Douglas County’s refusal to allow the Arrowhead-Weston transmission line to cross public land. The committee also heard testimony on Assembly Bill 441, a bill originally introduced by Senator Robert Cowles as a “legislative fix” to the legal obstacles to the construction of the Oak Creek power plant.
Supporters of the Arrowhead-Weston and Oak Creek projects lined up to voice their approval of AB 437 and AB 441. Two PSC commissioners and PSC chief counsel David Gilles testified that it would be a good idea to change the CPCN law because the PSC is not really following it anyway. Gilles testified that changing Chapter 196 would merely put into law what has been “commission practice” for some time, which is apparently to ignore the law as it is written. The requirement in Chapter 196 that alternative power plant sites be considered is “just not practical in the real world,” said another witness.
At this point I would like to mention that in the last five years, under current law, the American Transmission Company has received many certificates from the PSC to either upgrade or build new power lines and substations. It did not require changes in legislation to build a new 345 kV line from Illinois to Rock County, a line that is now in service and has greatly improved transfer capability. The existing law was adequate to get approval for the lines connecting the new West Campus power plant and for the Elm Road Generating Station interconnection. It was also fine, as written, for permission to build line to interconnect a wind farm in Fond du Lac County. In fact, even the Arrowhead-Weston line was permitted under Chapter 196 as currently applied. Only since Douglas County asserted its right to control its own land do we hear of this sudden need to amend Chapter 196.
Nor is it particularly difficult to site power plants, contrary to what the utilities and their government backers would have you believe. Although there has been local opposition to MG&E’s campus cogen plant the project is moving forward. WPS’ Weston 4 project, which is a 500-megawatt coal-fired plant, is under construction. Wisconsin Power & Light’s Sheboygan Falls plant, which will generate 300 megawatts of electricity, is being built. Construction of two gas-fired units at Port Washington, which will generate 545 megawatts each, is almost complete. In fact, the Elm Road Generating Station was permitted under existing law, and it is only since the court found that the PSC failed to follow the law that suddenly we urgently need to change section 196.
It is bad public policy to change the law to accommodate the siting of one particular project when existing law has presented no obstacles to reasonable proposals and has effectively protected the public interest. I also doubt very much that the full implications of AB 437 or AB 441 have been adequately evaluated in the short time that has been allowed for consideration of these bills.
Some members of the Legislature seem to think that it is wrong for citizens to use the judicial system as a check on the untrammeled power of corporations and government agencies. We at Clean Wisconsin have been called “extremists” for demanding that utilities and the PSC obey the law. One state senator has so little respect for the judiciary in Wisconsin that he called Judge Flanagan “goofy” for his well-reasoned ruling in the Oak Creek case. AB 441’s proposed changes to the power plant siting law are designed to make the work of the Supreme Court irrelevant and AB 437 is designed to make the work of the Douglas County Board of Supervisors irrelevant.
Both bills are designed to silence the voices of the people of Wisconsin, people who want only to protect their families and communities. If Governor Doyle wants a thorough environmental analysis of projects that will affect Wisconsin’s land, air, and water for decades, he must veto AB 441. If he respects local government’s authority to control land use, he must veto AB 437.
June 5, 2005
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Katie Nekola is the energy policy director for Clean Wisconsin in Madison.
