Land owners speak out against proposed Clean Line

GRUNDY CENTER — Local land owners expressed concern and trepidation while simply wondering why a proposed wind energy corridor needs to cross their land during a public forum about the proposed Rock Island Clean Line last Wednesday at the Grundy Center Community Center.
    Clean Line Energy Partners hosted the forum as part of the requirement to obtain a franchise for the line from the Iowa Utilities Board.
    The Rock Island Clean Line would extend 500 miles, from a switching station in O’Brien County in northwest Iowa through north central and eastern Iowa to another switching station near Joliet, Ill. According to Clean Line, the corridor would transport power from Iowa to 1.4 million homes in 14 states east of the Mississippi River and would not provide power to Iowa customers, drawing questions of what benefit the line would have to Grundy County.
    The two-hour meeting, one of five held last week across north central and northeast Iowa, featured Iowa Utilities Board representative Jim Sundmeyer explaining the process that Clean Line must go through to obtain a franchise as well as the right of eminent domain, or condemnation, to obtain the right of way needed for the project. He also explained the legal rights of land owners wishing to appeal an eminent domain decision.
 

For more of this story, see the Nov. 28 Grundy Register.