Wind Line Dealt Severe Blow
“The Illinois Commerce Commission recently approved the hotly contested Rock Island Clean Line high voltage transmission line, a similar, sister project to Grain Belt Express but imposed conditions that likely will be showstoppers for the private company. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), the state’s utility regulatory board, recently ruled on the proposed Rock Island Clean Line (RICL) high voltage transmission line and dealt them a severe blow by the conditions placed on it.
The line that would stretch from northwest Iowa to Illinois is one of four similar lines that Clean Line Energy Partners LLC, a fledgling company from Houston, Texas is proposing to build and maintain in the Midwest. The lines are designed to transport electricity generated by wind farms in the Great Plains to the more heavily populated regions mostly in the northeast. The company claims that land based wind generated electricity is less expensive than off shore wind such as that off the Atlantic coast adjacent to the highly populated coastal states their lines would supply.”
Gatrel, Jennifer. My Caldwell County 16 December 2014.