JIM SALTER Associated Press
March 16, 2014
In this Aug. 23, 2013 file photo wind turbines are silhouetted by the setting sun as they produce electricity near Beaumont, Kan. The plains of Kansas could be a treasure trove in the nation’s growing effort to harness clean energy. But a major proposal to move wind-generated electricity from Kansas to the East is running into a roadblock: Farmers who don’t want high-power transmission lines on their land. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
ST. LOUIS • The windy plains of Kansas could be a treasure trove in the nation’s effort to harness clean energy, but a major proposal to move wind-generated electricity eastward is running into a roadblock: Farmers who don’t want high-power transmission lines on their land.
Clean Line Energy Partners wants to spend $2.2 billion to build a 750-mile-long high-voltage overhead transmission line. Towers 110 to 150 feet tall, 4-6 per mile, would carry lines with power generated by Kansas’ modernistic windmill turbines through sparsely populated northern Missouri, through the cornfields of Illinois and to a substation in Sullivan, Ind. The exact route has not been finalized.
The idea is supported by environmental groups who say it is an opportunity to take a big step forward for an energy source that could reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and cut air pollution. Clean Line has four other transmission line projects in the works in the West and Midwest.
All five still require regulatory approval. If all goes right, the Kansas-to-Indiana line — called the Green Belt Express Clean Line — could be operational by 2018, said Mark Lawlor, director of development for Clean Line.