Council objects to above-ground power line along Beltline
Madison's City Council voted Tuesday night to send a strong message about a potential power line that would run through Dane County along the Beltline.
The council passed a resolution that would ask American Transmission Co. -- if it chooses a path along the Beltline for a new 345-kilovolt power line -- to go underground with that portion of the line.
The state's Public Service Commission deemed the company's application complete in July, which started a six-month to one-year process, including public and technical hearings, to approve or deny the construction of the line.
ATC says the new line would meet the increasing energy demands of fast-growing Dane County, but the company has yet to set a location for the route. It is currently deciding between a route that would run along the Beltline and one south of that in a more rural area.
Citing Department of Transportation concerns about Beltline expansion as well as economic concerns for nearby businesses, the City Council voted overwhelmingly to oppose the Beltline route altogether, but also requested that if one is to be built there, ATC builds the lines underground.
Some council members felt the resolution did not go far enough, however, by not condemning the new power line in general.
Ald. Brian Solomon proposed an amendment to the resolution that would request a "thorough analysis" of ways to reduce demand and conserve energy, thus potentially rendering an additional power line unnecessary. He also brought up the economic impact not only of increased energy use, but of building the new power line itself, which would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, a cost that would be passed on largely to energy consumers in the form of increased rates.
Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway, one of the resolution's sponsors, agreed with the amendment, saying that cities have the ability to reduce the energy use in buildings by 50 percent with today's technology and that Madison should be on the forefront of advocating that conservation.
"Who is going to throw that challenge out to the community if not us?" she asked. "I think it's our responsibly to ask for more energy efficiency and ask the PSC to change the way that it thinks.
"We're all operating under an old paradigm, and it's not going to last. You can see the economy that it's gotten us."
Ald. Zach Brandon called the additional clause "empty rhetoric," adding that it would have little effect on the PSC, which had already studied the need for a new power line and determined it necessary for the growing county.
"This is what the PSC does," Brandon said. "They do the studies. They take into account whether it's necessary or not. The PSC weighs very carefully whether these are the right types of expansion and where they go."
Ald. Mark Clear compared the resolution and amendment to a resolution passed earlier in the night regarding studying lake levels on Lake Mendota and flood stages for lakes Mendota, Monona and Waubesa. The lake resolution, he said, could have addressed the increased flooding problems on the lakes as a global warming issue, but chose instead to keep it focused on what could practically and immediately be done by the county and state regarding the lakes.
"I think we should be pragmatic about where this goes and how it looks, but I think we undermine ourselves completely when we sit there and throw in extra hurdles that will not be recognized by the PSC as valid," he said.
Solomon's amendment failed by a narrow vote, but the resolution itself passed with another amendment by Brandon after he suggested the resolution did not go far enough to say why the Beltline route was opposed.
"We're acting as if the rural option is the better option, but we're not saying it. And if that's the case, then come out and say it, but don't just say, 'Not in our back yard,'" he said.
File photo
The City Council doesn't want power lines like these to run along the Beltline.
