September 10, 2013
Kansas

County files to intervene in Clean Line case

By Paul Kessinger | The Marysville Advocate | Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 | www.marysvilleonline.net

Marshall County Attorney Laura Johnson-McNish has filed a petition to intervene in a case before the Kansas Corporation Commission to express the county’s concerns with Clean Line Energy Partners’ siting application.

Marshall County commissioners met briefly Aug. 28 to request that the attorney file a petition on behalf of the county before Aug. 30, the last day that the KCC would accept the petitions.

Clean Line is applying for the KCC’s approval of a transmission line’s construction through 19 counties in Kansas. The line is being built to transmit energy from wind farms in Ford County to Sullivan County in Indiana.

The county’s petition states reasons the commissioners believe the KCC, which regulates transmission, should not approve Clean Line’s siting application, which will run a high-voltage, direct-current line across Marshall County parallel with an existing Westar line that runs east-west just south of Marysville.

Commissioners asked Johnson-McNish to file the petition because of widespread local opposition to the line’s construction. Commissioner Charlie Loiseau told the KCC at a recent hearing in Seneca that he had not heard any support for the project from landowners in Marshall County.

“Marshall County is concerned about the impacts of the proposed HVDC line and the proposed route on both the safety of the county and the economic welfare of the county,” said Johnson-McNish in the petition.

Petitions to intervene with Clean Line’s siting application with the KCC have also been filed by Nemaha-Marshall Electric, Westar Energy, transmission company ITC Great Plains, Coalition for Landowners, the Environment and Natural Resources, and several individual landowners.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/09/10/county-files-to-intervene-in-clean-line-case/