"Power line plan invites discussion," Star Tribune
Minnesota will see 630 miles of high-voltage wires strung across Minnesota's countryside by 2015; the exact route, however, is still undecied.
The $1.6 billion dollar project will be brought to 10 public meetings to hear how Minnesota citizens weigh-in on the project.
"We really haven't done anything of this magnitiude since the late 1960s and early 1970s," Jim Alders, manager of regulatory projects for Xcel Energy said to the Star Tribune.
The reason for such a large project has three factors according to Terry Grove, director of regional transmission development for Great River Energy: 1) More power will be delivered to Rochester, St. Cloud, Fargo, as well as other cities, 2) surrounding rural areas will have a strengthened electric system, and 3) by 2025, the state will 25 percent of their electricity to be generated from renewable sources.
An attorney from Red Wing, Carol Overland, thinks that energy can be generated closer to where it is consumed by wind farms, rather than building long-distance power lines, according to the Star Tribune.
Bill Grant, executive director of the Midwest office of the Izaak Walton League thinks the power lines are a must to keep up with the Twin Cities' growing need for electricity.