Wisconsin’s senate majority leader says misinformation is being spread about a bill he has written.
Republican State Senator Devin LeMahieu provided more details about the Right of First Refusal bill on WOMT’s Be My Guest program earlier this week.
He says when municipalities need power lines, the local utility builds them.
But with tech companies coming in, a lot of power will be needed to build interstate transmission lines.
LeMahieu says those projects are overseen in Wisconsin by the American Transmission Company (ATC).
Those projects, like all utility projects, are bid out, but ATC would own the lines afterward.
However, since the lines would go through multiple states, MISO or the Midcontinent Independent System Operator would be helping in the interstate line building.
Sen. LeMahieu explained that, under these rules, “If the incumbent builds the power line, then that gets cost-shared through the region. If it’s not the incumbent power company that builds it, then that company bears the entire cost to the ratepayers of Wisconsin.”
LeMahieu says cost sharing needs to happen because if Wisconsin can’t cost share to other midwestern states, the full freight of costs will be on Wisconsin ratepayers.
“So it (the bill) actually saves money,” he noted. “There’s an estimate that over the next 20-30 years it could save ratepayers in Wisconsin almost a billion dollars with all the new lines going in.”
Manitowoc Public Utilities announced their support for the Right of First Refusal bill in a statement last week.
Other coalition members include the Wisconsin Economic Development Association, Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin, and three other major transmission companies.
