Energy companies should share ‘highway’

To the editor:

Does the Rock Island Clean Line really need their own separate 'highway” for transporting electricity”? Does Iowa need more eminent domain, easements, fragmented farmland and wildlife habitat?

Iowa is a leader in wind-generated energy that helps protect our environmental community. But does each energy transporting company need its own separate 'highway”? That is like having separate roads for every trucking company. Ridiculous.

We need lines to transport energy as much as we need trucks to transport goods, but each transport company does not need its own private 'highway.” Energy companies should share their 'highways” the same as trucks and cars share roadways. Why can't a law be made to require energy transmission companies to 'piggyback” on the poles and towers already in place instead of taking more land and habitat for their own private use?

Sharing costs of transmission 'highways” already in place would help resolve both the eminent domain and the increased loss of farmland and wildlife habitat arguments against RICL, but it will need some amending to our current laws. It's time for Iowans to speak up and push their legislators to convert to renewable fuels in a manner that is smart from the start.

Susan West

Fairbank