Rural residents pan Xcel’s proposed $1 billion power line for wind and solar

Southwestern Minnesota farmers and residents left no doubt about their objections to Xcel Energy’s proposed billion dollar power line for renewable energy at a recent hearing before an administrative law judge in Granite Falls. Several speakers at the hearing made it clear the 175-mile long corridor that Xcel calls the “preferred route” was anything but preferred by many local landowners.

The West Central Tribune notes property owners lined up to oppose the huge 345-kilovolt line for obvious reasons.

Those in the line’s path told the administrative law judge and representatives of the Department of Commerce and PUC that it will cause them economic harm and significantly disrupt their farming operations and lives.

Randy Kramer, who farms in Osseo Township of Renville County, told the state officials that everything from GPS systems, aerial spraying and the large equipment that is essential to farming today will be adversely affected for those in the line’s proposed path.

Along with larger operating costs, landowners can anticipate reduced land values and the long-term burden of working around the line, he and others said. Some of the 35 attendees at the Granite Falls hearing cited specific issues to their locations, such as proximity to residences on segments of the line.

The main reason the utility wants to run another controversial line through farm country is not lost on rural residents. The proposed line would end in Becker, where Xcel plans to prematurely shut down the Sherco coal-fired power plants to meet the state’s renewable energy goals.

Rural landowners and residents will experience the adverse effects of the line, and see no benefits for it, a number of attendees said. Don Buesing, who farms outside of Granite Falls, pointed out that the electricity it is to carry will largely flow to other areas, including the Twin Cities.

He also charged that the increasing demand for land for solar farms is taking land out of production and harming farmers. They find it hard to compete with solar farms paying as much as five times what farmers can afford for leased land, he said.

One of the biggest questions concerns why the state would allow two big power lines to be located in the same area. And what happens when solar panels and wind turbines outlive their usefulness?

“Bad policy,” Bruce Gustafson, who farms near Hanley Falls in Yellow Medicine County, said of the renewable energy mandates. He said the proposed line is only one-half mile from the CapX transmission line now running through his property. That line was built to expand transmission capacity on the grid.

Gustafson expressed worries that he and other farmers will have to “deal with all the skeletons of wind farms” in the future when the turbines are decommissioned.

Officials from the Commerce Department and Public Utilities Commission were there to provide the usual noncommittal assurances that residents’ views will be taken into consideration. Final approval for the power line could come in March with construction starting in 2026.