UNDATED (WSAU) A judge has refused to stop plans for a new electric transmission line from Hampton Minnesota to La Crosse. Administrative Law Judge Kathleen Sheehy of Minnesota turned down a recent request to suspend planning for the “Cap-X-2020” project. The utilities behind the project have delayed a segment from Hampton to Sioux Falls South Dakota until 2015. And as a result, the line’s opponents said the segment to La Crosse should be pushed back as well.
There were questions about the way smaller utilities would tap into the South Dakota segment – but project officials say those concerns have nothing to do with the line to La Crosse, and they’re two separate projects. An environmental impact study is being prepared on the Wisconsin portion of the new line, and it’s expected to be finished in January. The line would cross into Wisconsin at Alma, and then go south to La Crosse.
Officials also considered bringing the line in from La Crescent Minnesota, which is just west of La Crosse. But state records show that the environmental study does not include that option.
