Based on wind generation potential If government subsidies drop and wind farms fail to materialize, producers say the line won’t be needed
TWIN BUTTE, Alta. — AltaLink has a fight on its hands with a proposal that would erect a 240 kilovolt electrical line through southwestern Alberta.
More than 100 people gathered in Twin Butte June 20 to discuss how to prevent the Goose Lake to Etzikom Coulee line from being built.
Members of the Chinook Area Land Users Association, who organized the meeting, were supported by Joe Anglin, the Wildrose MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, who is well known in the province for his opposition to power line construction in central Alberta.
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“I’ll join the fight,” Anglin told the group. “I will stay with you as long as you stay organized … because this thing has to be stopped.”
The power line, part of the Southern Alberta Transmission Reinforcement plan approved in 2008 by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), is designated to go near Waterton Lakes National Park, cross scenic ranching country and skirt native grasslands.
It will connect a transmission station near Pincher Creek to another near Etzikom, potentially going near Glenwood, Cardston, Spring Coulee, Magrath, Raymond and Stirling, depending on the route AltaLink deems least disruptive.
Anglin said his review of the AltaLink plans indicates the company has suggested building in areas outside the “needs approval” region for the line, meaning the area approved by AESO. That will give the Chinook group grounds for fighting the line.
“You can win this,” he said. “You hire a lawyer and start the fight. You’ve got to cost AltaLink money.”
AltaLink has said at open houses that the line is needed to connect wind turbine projects to the provincial electrical grid. Some of the wind farms are only proposals at this stage, which is one of the things that concerns landowners.
“I am 100 percent opposed to it,” said Pincher Creek area rancher Quentin Stevick.
“I don’t feel that the line itself is even necessary because its for a projected 2,700 megawatts of potential wind energy. This is a lot like building a six lane highway when you don’t even know if you’re going to have any traffic on it. It’s looking to me like a chicken and egg thing, where the wind generation won’t be built unless the transmission line is in place, but the transmission line, to me, doesn’t need to built unless the wind generators are there.”
Stevick said AESO’s 2008 plan may have made sense then, but questions are now being asked about the viability of wind power generation.
“If you take away some of the government subsidies and you take away some of the carbon offsets, are these wind generators really as efficient as people say they are?”
Anglin’s support revived a meeting that had grown quiet after land agent Darryl Bennett recounted specifics from his fight on behalf of 30 Coaldale area landowners against the Montana Alberta Tie Line, which is now in at least temporary limbo.
Bennett said landowners have little power when dealing with AESO, AltaLink and the Alberta Utilities Commission.
“You’re just something they have to go through to get the line built,” he said.
Dealings with the provincial surface rights board are also problematic when the utility applies for and receives right of entry.
“The board’s not going to visit your land. You’re not going to be able to challenge AltaLink’s submissions to the board,” Bennett said.
Anglin said agencies and utility companies intentionally route power lines through rural areas.
“They pick on farmers and rural people because they don’t fight and they don’t organize,” he said.
The Chinook group now intends to ask for a public meeting with AESO and AltaLink. Other landowner groups in the region are also planning meetings to fight construction of this power line and other projects.
