May 19, 2008 - 04:06:11 CDT
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota's wind energy industry would face a setback because of an administrative ruling against building electric transmission lines in Minnesota, Gov. Mike Rounds said.Rounds criticized the ruling by two administrative law judges in Minnesota against allowing transmission lines from the proposed Big Stone II power plant to be built in northeast South Dakota.
Those lines could carry 1,000 megawatts of wind power from South Dakota, he said during a call-in radio program on the Dakota News Network.
After the program, Rounds said proponents of the power plant would try to persuade the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to reject the recommendation by the law judges.
"It isn't in the best interests of the people of the area or of energy production for the nation," he said. "If that ruling stands, energy production in the entire region suffers."
Five utility companies want to build the new coal-fired power plant near an existing plant on Big Stone Lake near Milbank. The judges said the utilities didn't show that the demand for power couldn't be met with renewable energy and greater efficiency.
Rounds said wind energy is essential in his vision for South Dakota to become what he called the epicenter for energy production in the upper U.S.
"We have a huge amount of capability here, but we don't have the transmission lines to get it out of state," he said.
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