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Dear Editor:
These days many of us are sort of numbed to vast amounts of money, greed, waste and idiocy. However, ATC's proposal for the Cardinal Hickory Creek line is outrageous!
Electricity use in the US fell dramatically in the recession of '08-'09, and has increased in Wisconsin only 1/2 of one percent since 2010. Use has decreased in Illinois and Indiana more than 5%! Eighteen other states to our east and south have also decreased their use of electricity.(More efficient appliances, light bulbs, building codes and our behavior are credited for these savings.)
In Iowa over this time, however, use of electricity increased 7.7%. Need in many states west of Iowa also increased. The Badger Coulee transmission line is being built from west to southeast through Wisconsin amidst protests, with the Public Service Board's justification being something like "just in case". And, now, they are considering another monstrous line from Dubuque County to Middleton. For whom? The need is west of us, not east or south!
American Transmission Company is a private company out of Pewaukee. The motivation for building this line is the government's guarantee of 10.2% annual interest for ATC's investors. That great interest rate would come out of rate-payers' pockets - yours and mine! The hundreds of millions of dollars for the equipment and pesticide to clear the wide path though our unique, scenic land, for the tons of steel and cement to built the ugly, visible-for-miles towers, and for the dishonest publicity and "persuading" our state officials would also be added to our electric bills.
The devaluation of land, loss and degradation of farmland, and loss of wildlife habitat, beauty and tourism would also be ours.
We can each do something to prevent this!
- Attend a meeting at Dodger Bowl on Jan. 24, 5-8 p.m. or at Deer Valley Lodge in Barneveld on Jan. 28, 5-8 p.m.
- Write a letter about your concerns to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service.
-Email the Public Service or DNR by Jan 4th at http://bit.ly/CHCeSCOPE, or
-Write to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, Attention: Akanksha Craft, 4822 Madison Yards Way, Madison,WI 53705
Use your power!
Resha Wyman
Dodgeville, WI