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Dear Editor:
ATC's, ITC's, and Dairyland Power Cooperative's Letter to the Editor claims to state facts. Here is what they don't tell us.
FACT: Cardinal-Hickory Creek (CHC) is not necessary for us have reliable electricity. The power outages we experience happen when wooden distribution poles go down in storms. CHC is meant to move electric power from Iowa to the east and south doing nothing for the delivery of local power.
FACT: Towers like the ones proposed for CHC are implicated in starting the deadly Camp fire in California. That company, PG&E, recently declared bankruptcy to protect itself from liability. Imagine Governor Dodge State Park up in flames.
Climate change is already causing not only droughts, but also record flooding, and more intense storms, including tornados. Will seventeen story towers be able to handle the 135 mph winds of the EF2 tornado that hit my property two years ago, not to mention higher straight line winds from stronger storms?
The US military is getting off the grid. As of 2017 40% of our military installations had transitioned to micro-grids for resilience and reliability needed in a world of unprecedented weather caused by climate change.
FACT: According to a Department of Homeland Security Red Alert the Russians hacked into our electric grid. Reliability would increase if money were spent on IT improvements to safeguard the digital systems of our utilities and their suppliers - and not by planting more steel towers in the ground. That is an outdated 20th century solution for a 21st century problem.
FACT: Wisconsin ratepayers will share the cost of CHC with ratepayers in other states. But we also already share the costs of multiple, previous lines built in Wisconsin and other states. That's a lot of transmission line costs on our individual monthly utility bill.

Sincerely
Michelle Citron
Dodgeville, WI