State lawmakers want the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to have more time to review major transmission line projects. This as two large projects advance toward PSC review. Tim Woodhouse leads the coalition opposing the 140 mile long, 765 kilovolt Maribell line that would traverse Southwestern Wisconsin’s Driftless Region.
“We’ve been thrown into a David and Goliath situation with this proposal. It’d be the largest transmission line proposal ever in the state of Wisconsin,” Woodhouse said during a Wednesday press conference at the Capitol in Madison. “Because it’s such a large project, we need time, we need resources, we need our lawmakers to come together and try to put some guardrails to all this.”
Representatives Tara Johnson and Andrew Hysell are calling for expanded review authority for the Public Service Commission so residents can have input. “The 180-day extension to the review timeline is warranted and the increase in the PSC intervener compensation programs are warranted because the impact of PSC decisions are permanent,” Johnson said.
“We need to start legislating for the public interest, for the average person,” said Heysell. “People are so angry that they feel like they’re getting shut out of these processes and they shouldn’t feel that way. They should not feel that way.”
A Tony Evers budget proposal that would have allowed the PSC chair to grant an additional 180 days to review large transmission projects was pulled by Republican lawmakers. Applications for the Maribell and BECI projects will be submitted to the PSC early next year.