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Rock Island Clean Line would impact thousands of acres
Credit: The Gazette | thegazette.com 2 July 2012 ~~
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Hans Detweiler, former Illinois and Washington lobbyist and currently the director of development for Rock Island Clean Line (RICL), was profiled in Crain’s Chicago Business. The following is an excerpt from the May 21 article:
“Also, today’s rock-bottom wholesale power prices, in the low $30s per megawatt-hour, are too low to make the project (Rock Island Clean Line for wind power) economic. Mr. Detweiler expects that in five years, when he hopes the line will be built, prices will be modestly higher. He says, given how strong the wind blows in northwest Iowa, $45 per megawatt-hour would be sufficient.”
An increase of almost 50 percent in wholesale power prices is needed to make this project economically feasible? That is absolutely not a “modest” increase!
Additionally, this projected economical infeasibility is budgeted on outdated land values and tax estimates. It will take longer than the 20 years they are suggesting that they pay the “offered” ridiculously low taxes to realize the full impact of property and land devaluation. RICL claims that it will fix all damages in construction, including compacted soil, but cannot say how. Since it intends to build in the middle of sections, and away from roads, this would impact thousands of acres outside of the easements. More importantly, RICL will have to take the majority of landowners in our area to court at significant additional cost.
Comments can be made on the Iowa Utilities Board Electronic Filing System website, located at https://efs.iowa.gov/. The docket number is NOI-2011-0002.
Mary Doughty Mauch
Earlville, Ill.
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