American Transmission Co., ITC Midwest and Dairyland, the co-owners of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line Project, are appealing the Federal District Court’s recent ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) may not approve the proposed crossing of the project in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge and that the environmental impact statement for the project by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service requires changes.
The federal agencies fully complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the USFWS has multiple sources of authority to allow the project to cross the Refuge with appropriate environmental conditions.
“Cardinal-Hickory Creek is an essential 345-kV backbone interconnection that will provide a vital link to the future of our region’s renewable energy developments,” said Dairyland COO Ben Porath. “Its construction and operability will reduce energy costs, improve the reliability and flexibility of the region’s transmission system, and support the interconnection of renewable generation in the Upper Midwest.”
The utility co-owners are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to stay the order of the lower court until the appellate court hears and decides the case.
An exhaustive environmental review was completed to select the crossing of the Refuge and the Mississippi River. The route will reduce environmental impacts in the Refuge by removing and relocating an existing 161-kV line that currently crosses the Refuge and co-locating it with the new 345-kV Cardinal-Hickory Creek line along an existing road, as well as retiring and removing an existing 69-kV line that also currently crosses the Refuge. The net impact will be to reduce the electric transmission footprint in the Refuge and replace existing structures with much shorter structures using an avian-friendly design.
The Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line Project was identified as part of a set of Multi-Value Projects (MVPs) by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the independent, not-for-profit regional transmission grid planning agency and transmission system operator for our region. As an MVP, the project is designed to improve transmission system reliability and provide a wide range of benefits, including relieving congestion on the transmission system to reduce energy costs and providing greater access to renewable generation. The project was approved by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in September 2019, and by the Iowa Utilities Board in May 2020.
Governments, corporations and other organizations pursuing sustainability goals are fueling the demand for clean, renewable energy. The federal government and states including Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota have all adopted policies to promote the development of renewable energy resources. These goals can only be accomplished by building the necessary electric transmission infrastructure to connect renewable energy production with consumers, notably the Cardinal-Hickory Creek project. The project is expected to reduce regional carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 150,000 to 1.2 million tons per year.
Generation and distribution utilities are depending on the Cardinal-Hickory Creek project to facilitate the region’s transition away from fossil fuels. Traditional baseload generating plants are being retired throughout Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest at an unprecedented pace, especially coal plants. Requests to interconnect new renewable generation sources with the transmission system are at an all-time high while new projects are backlogged due to a lack of transmission capacity. As of November 2021, 114 renewable generation projects totaling nearly 17 gigawatts were dependent upon its construction – enough to power millions of homes with clean energy. The critical role of this project in meeting the region’s energy needs compels the co-owners to ensure it is built for the benefit of electricity consumers by the scheduled in-service date of December 2023.
For more information, see the Cardinal-Hickory Creek website.