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Wisconsin & American Transmission Comp. Gang Up on
Workers & Farmers
by Adam
Ritscher / July 23
For years the American Transmission Company has been trying, with a
lot of success, to intimidate and bribe local governments, courts and
regulatory bodies to give it a green light for the Arrowhead-Weston
line. The Arrowhead-Weston, if
built, will be a massive 345 Kilovolt (that’s 345,000 volts!) bulk
transmission line that will allow ATC to sell cheap electricity from the
Manitoba Hydro project in Canada to the Chicago area, where it could make a
handsome profit underselling existing electric providers.
It’s a project that from the very beginning has raised alarm bells
from a whole host of activists, farmers, environmentalists, local people
who would be along the route, and others.
For one thing the cheap electricity that this line would transmit is
generated by a series of massive hydroelectric dams on Cree land in
Canada. In the process of building
these dams whole rivers were reversed, hundreds of Cree were dislocated and
the entire social and economic fabric of their communities destroyed.
And it doesn’t get much better down the line! If this line is built it would disrupt
hundreds of farms (an estimated 850 would be affected), pose a serious
health and safety risk given the magnetic field such a massive amount of
electricity generates, the risk of “arcing” (farmers have been warned
they’ll need to drag a chain behind their tractors to avoid being
electrocuted, and can’t even raise a shovel or hoe above their heads near
the line), and the possibility of the electricity corroding a buried gas
pipeline that runs along part of the route. And then there’s the environmental and ascetic aspects of
building hundreds of massive 13 story, 140 foot rusted metal poles across
hundreds of miles of fields, forests and wetlands.
Such things are matters of grave concern for the folks who will be
affected by this line, but naturally are either denied or pooh-poohed by
the consortium of utility companies that make up the American Transmission
Company. For them the only major
area of concern is how much money they’ll make, and how soon they can start
making it.
Faced with having to do battle with this corporate leviathan,
opponents of the Arrowhead-Weston came together in a group called Save Our
Unique Lands, and for five years have fought an uphill battle as local
government and state agencies, one after the other, caved in to the
traveling snake oil salesmen of ATC.
But things were dramatically turned around on Feb. 2 of this year
when SOUL, Socialist Action, and other local activists turned out almost
400 people at a Douglas County Board meeting in Superior, WI, convincing
the Board members to vote “No!” to negotiating with ATC – and thus stopping
the line in its tracks.
This incredible victory was followed up by neighboring Washburn
County deciding to put off deciding whether or not to negotiate with ATC,
and a lawsuit by SOUL forcing the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
to suspend its permit to allow ATC to build in the state pending a second
look at the likely environmental impact of the line.
Things were looking good for the good people of northern
Wisconsin! The people had spoken
and had won the day – or so it seemed.
For as it turned out the profit-hungry American Transmission Company
had a trump card up its sleeve that it was about to play.
Enter the Montgomery Bill – a proposed piece of legislation that
would essentially allow a private company to force a local government to
let it use its lands whether it wanted them to or not, providing they got
permission from the state. In other
words if MacDonald’s buys a couple of politicians in Madison they can then
go ahead and forcibly build a restaurant in a local City Hall or County
Courthouse, and there’d be nothing the local government could do about
it.
The law provides that once the state says a project has its
blessing, a local government has 90 days to begin “good faith negotiations”
with the private company, or else a state arbitrator will come in and just
tell them how it’ll be and that’ll be that.
An incredibly nasty piece of legislation, designed to do an
incredibly nasty job – taking away the right of people to have a say in
what goes on in their own backyard.
Realizing that the Arrowhead-Weston line couldn’t be built without
crossing county land in Douglas County, ATC simply snapped their fingers
and their mercenary politicians changed the law at the state level.
Opponents of the Arrowhead-Weston were shocked when the news of this
proposed new legislation first broke, but assumed it would never pass. But then it passed the state
legislature. And then it passed the
state senate. Both the Democratic
and Republican parties seemed to be tripping over themselves to show how useful
they could be to big business.
Following all this a terrified Douglas County Board voted to begin
negotiations with ATC, though with the provision that if the Montgomery
Bill didn’t get the Governor’s signature negotiations would be broke
off. A desperate series of anti-Montgomery
Bill pickets were held by SOUL and Socialist Action in Superior, WI to try
and stem the tide. But on July 21
Democratic Governor Jim Doyle signed the Montgomery Bill it into law. And now the Douglas County Board will
have to begin negotiations, or be in violation of the law.
The continued, massive outpouring of popular opposition to this
for-profit line was blatantly ignored by those who claim to represent
us. In a tragic experience,
thousands of farmers and working people got a lesson in whose side the big
newspapers and politicians are on when it comes to struggles between
working people and big business.
But with that lesson in mind, the opponents of the Arrowhead-Weston
have pledged to continue to fight against this for-profit line, despite the
new legislation. It will be an
incredibly uphill battle from here on out, but we cannot let the likes of
the American Transmission Company destroy our livelihoods, our quality of
life and our rights for the sake of their profits!
People interested in joining the fight against the Arrowhead-Weston
are urged to contact Save Our Unique Lands. You can check out our local website at www.geocities.com/saveouruniquelands
or attend our monthly planning meetings, which are held on the 3rd
Monday of the month at the Community Center in Bennett, WI.
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