We're going to start here. Play this song and turn up the volume.
Karma gave me a giggle last week when I read a story about the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line proposed for Wisconsin and Iowa. The project, one of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's (MISO) multi-value projects designed to increase the distribution of wind power across the region, is being panned by Howard Learner of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.
"The world has changed since MISO began this," said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, with offices in Chicago and Madison, serving as attorney for the Driftless Area organization. "It's sort of like saying it's important to build more telephone wires and poles to serve the additional landlines that people in Middleton and Cross Plains are going to use, and then all of a sudden, cell phones came in."
Learner, who has a home near Spring Green, said upgrades to local power lines would be more appropriate than a huge transmission line that will carry electricity produced by fossil fuel and nuclear plants, as well as wind power.
"This is not the right place ... unless it's absolutely needed to keep the lights on, and this line is not needed for that purpose," Learner said.
Oh, Learner has a home near Spring Green, you say? Gosh, that's dangerously close to Cardinal-Hickory Creek's proposed route, isn't it?
So, now, after years of supporting other big transmission projects "for wind" across other states (see list of "supporters" at bottom of page), Learner has finally seen the light. Can we get a Hallelujah, brothers and sisters?
"It's not the right place..." if it's near Howard's little slice of paradise. But it is the right place if it's near someone else's. Got it.
I think Howard might be a hypocrite.
Here's wishing a transmission line "for wind" in every environmentalist's backyard! Perhaps then we can get on with real progress, like distributed generation and upgrading local power lines to distribute locally generated renewables. That might REALLY change the world!
So, now, after years of supporting other big transmission projects "for wind" across other states (see list of "supporters" at bottom of page), Learner has finally seen the light. Can we get a Hallelujah, brothers and sisters?
"It's not the right place..." if it's near Howard's little slice of paradise. But it is the right place if it's near someone else's. Got it.
I think Howard might be a hypocrite.
Here's wishing a transmission line "for wind" in every environmentalist's backyard! Perhaps then we can get on with real progress, like distributed generation and upgrading local power lines to distribute locally generated renewables. That might REALLY change the world!
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