Link, stating in part:
A group of six electricity producers have filed plans with state regulators for a new power line in western and central Minnesota that's expected to cost $600 million to $700 million.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy and Fergus Falls-based Otter Tail Power would lead the Minnesota construction of a roughly 200-mile line from Big Stone City, S.D., to Becker, Minn.
The western segment of the 345-kilovolt line, from Big Stone to Alexandria, Minn., would entail building new transmission towers. The eastern portion from Alexandria to Becker would be strung primarily on existing towers with capacity for a second circuit.
"Transmission is the backbone of the electric grid, and it is essential for integrating renewable energy resources into the grid and maintaining reliable electricity service," Terry Wolf, a vice president at Missouri River Energy Services, said in a joint news statement.
Sioux Falls-Missouri River, which has customers in western Minnesota; Minnesota Power; Great River Energy; and the Western Minnesota Municipal Power Association are the other four members of the power line consortium.
If approved by regulators, the plan is for the eastern part of the Big Stone-to-Becker line to be completed in 2027 and the western portion in 2031.
[...]
Grid build-out is needed to get wind power from its advantageous sources to where the power is needed, and rural solar farms along the grid would add renewable capacity to fit population growth, related housing growth, and industrial needs.
Anticipated electric vehicle charging station growth is paralleled by a need to upgrade the grid. Off-peak overnight home charging will not suffice. With heat pumps replacing furnaces sufficient for Minnesota winter temperatures, (and better winterizing of homes) together with other things which had been powered by combustion being switched to electrical power - the phasing out of fossil fuel climate impact - means grid expansion is inevitable. The future will have to be powered by renewable electricity. The timeline quoted in the Strib item suggests a reasonably prompt short term buildout would still involve a 2030 target date, and beyond.
It will not be an overnight transition. Massive infrastructure reform cannot happen on anything but a cogently planned budget and construction schedule.
Climate change deniers can keen and clutch pearls, but science cautions decision making to be sane, instead.
Phasing out fossil fuels has the added policy benefit that our nation will be less inclined to interfere in Middle Eastern affairs so that we may hope to not have another oil war like Bush's Iraq, or the Obama-NATO mischief in Libya. Their local hostilities and power putsches and grudge matches will not have the worldwide reach once a worldwide renewable economy is enacted.
And it must be worldwide.
Climate effects of combustion anywhere will spread with the wind, so that planners have no choice.