Canada OKs farmers' power line appeal
"The only way we're ever going to stop this line is to win an appeal and get the decision overturned," said Scott Stenbeck, an attorney representing 16 farmers who live in the Lethbridge and Warner areas.
Marc Clark, president of the line's developer, Montana Alberta Tie Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Toronto-based Tonbridge Power Inc., said the ruling may delay the project, but it won't stop the proposed line.
"For a facility that has a 50-year lifespan, a few months delay has very little consequence," he said.
The farmers are appealing a decision by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Commission to license the 230-kilovolt Montana Alberta Tie Line, or MATL, which was first proposed in 2005.
They oppose the route, which cuts across private farm land.
"They're going through one of the most heavily irrigated areas in the country," Stenbeck said.
On Thursday, a judge with the Alberta Court of Appeals granted the landowners "leave to appeal" based on two of their three claims, meaning the case can now proceed to a three-judge appeals panel, where both sides will argue the case in more depth.
"If we had lost, we're done," Stenbeck said.
No date has been scheduled for the hearing.
Construction of the line is critical to the plans of wind-power development companies that have leased land along the conduit. One of those developers, NaturEner, already is building a 210-megawatt wind farm south of Ethridge, which company officials say might be expanded if the MATL is built.
In Montana, leaders from towns located along the proposed transmission line are touting the property taxes and lease payments to landowners in backing the project.
The proposal also has brought opposition from some landowners who object to the impact on farming operations and the possible use of eminent domain.
The legal issues in the Alberta appeal have to do with jurisdiction and public interest.
In the jurisdictional matter, the landowners disagree with the EUB's stance that the route of the line couldn't be moved outside of a two-kilometer corridor set by the Canadian National Energy Board, Stenbeck said.
They also want MATL to prove the project is in the public's interest, especially if the private company encroaches on private farming enterprises to establish the transmission line.
MATL's Clark called the appeal narrow in scope.
"It's simply about jurisdiction between regulatory authorities," he said.
The project is facing a bigger delay in the United States, where the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of Energy are wrapping up work on an environmental impact statement, he said.
Ideally, the company will begin preparing for construction in the fall, with construction beginning in the winter.
"There's little chance this project would not go ahead," he said.
Some 800 landowners who formed a group to fight another transmission project in Alberta, called AltaLink, which was proposed between Edmonton and Calgary, financed the appeal of the MATL, said Joe Anglin of Rimbey, Alberta, the group's chairman.
Stenbeck also represents the AltaLink opponents.
"They didn't think we could stop that one and that was a lot bigger company," he said.