Clean Line withdraws Iowa application

Opponents of the Rock Island Clean Line received an early Christmas gift late last week, as Clean Line Energy Partners announced that it was withdrawing its application to the Iowa Utilities Board to construct a transmission line across the state.
The decision comes as Clean Line fights a court challenge in Illinois. The Illinois Commerce Commission granted the group permission to build the Illinois portion of the line in 2014, though since then the case has been in court. An appellate court reversed the Illinois decision in August, and the Illinois Supreme Court agreed last month to review the case.
The proposed power corridor project would extend 500 miles, from a switching station in O’Brien County in northwest Iowa through north central and eastern Iowa to another switching station near Joliet, Ill. According to Clean Line, the corridor would transport power from Iowa to 1.4 million homes in 14 states east of the Mississippi River. It would not provide power to Iowa customers.
Read the full article in the December 29 edition of the T-J.