Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 67. Sunrise is 6:32 and sunset is 7:08 for 12 hours 36 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1814, in a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem Defence of Fort M’Henry, which is later set to music and becomes The Star-Spangled Banner.
This libertarian blogger has posted twice previously on the BECI power line. See Opposing the Routing of the BECI 765-kV Transmission Line and Sugar Creek Stands Tall. This power line, unlike a recent solar power development in the area, is an expropriation from private property owners. (The solar power development represents a series of freely contracted agreements between private landowners and the developer for the placement of solar panels on farmers’ own land. The BECI power line is an imposed, forced acquisition of private landowners’ property for the developer’s ownership. A proposal like this is, or at least should be, presumptively objectionable in a society that understands the importance of private ownership as both a right and also as a source of overall economic well-being.)
This week, both major-party candidates for governor declared opposition to the BECI project (at least in its present form):
In the latest sign that a controversial high-voltage transmission line planned for Wisconsin has become a political touchstone, both candidates to serve as Wisconsin governor say they oppose it.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley announced his opposition in a Sept. 10 press release. Republican candidate Tom Tiffany has told voters across the state that he’s opposed to the project, a spokesperson said.
The BECI project, a proposed 765-kilovolt power line, would stretch from western Wisconsin to the Illinois state line in Walworth County. Despite the developers’ position that it is vital for a reliable electric grid and a smooth transition to clean energy, individual landowners and communities along the line have mounted intense backlash to what they view as an unnecessary disturbance of the state’s Driftless region, primarily intended to serve data centers.
The governor of Wisconsin, along with the state Senate, appoints commissioners to the Public Service Commission, who will ultimately approve or deny proposed power line projects like this one. The current commissioners, appointed by Gov. Tony Evers, are serving six-year terms that will end in 2030.
In Crowley’s Sept. 10 statement, he said Wisconsin’s clean energy future “cannot come at the expense of our local communities or the Driftless region as a whole.”
Tiffany in an emailed statement said Wisconsin “should not become a web of massive transmission lines crisscrossing our farmland because politicians failed to build reliable power right here at home.”
See Madeline Heim, Crowley, Tiffany oppose Driftless power line project, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 10, 2026.
These announcements are good news for those of us sensibly opposed to the project. They are not, however, the end of this project. (The opposition of major candidates will not, notably, immediately affect membership on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, as most commissioners have years left on their terms.)
Two points come to mind. First, these candidates took the positions that they did in response to Wisconsinites’ expressed concerns. Governments and politicians now declaring against the project did not create popular opinion — they are responding to it.
Second, there are those in local governments near and far who may be advising that a deal should be made with the BECI developer, as the project is inevitable. That’s advice deserving only rejection. This can be stopped (and, even if not stopped, then crafted satisfactorily later only through resolute opposition now). Those talking about dealing now, compromising now, misunderstand the degree of opposition and what that opposition can accomplish. Indeed, opposition has already accomplished much, despite the rushed and duplicitous efforts of the developer. (Anyone thinking that the developer’s own focus group meetings in August were anything other than a contrived effort at considering residents’ views probably fell off a turnip truck yesterday.)
So along comes this developer like a python, looking for something to eat. Those who approach that reptile incautiously and innocently will only offer themselves as a meal.
By contrast, those who see this power line project for what it is — a developer’s rapacious taking of ordinary people’s private property for its own corporate gain — will make themselves like a porcupine, difficult to swallow and not worth the effort.
The best position against BECI is resolute opposition. Momentum is with those who oppose. There’s no reason whatever to relent now.
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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), Steps for a Public Interest Campaign, and A New Ethics Ordinance.
Bayside uses goats in the battle against roadside vegetation: