The Iowa House has passed a bill that would likely doom the proposed Rock Island Clean Line project to ship wind power generated in Iowa to Illinois. If the bill becomes law, developers of electric transmission line projects would have three years to get agreements with 75 percent of affected property owners before Iowa regulators could give developers eminent domain authority to seize the rest of the properties.
Representative Bobby Kaufmann (COUGH-man), a Republican from Wilton, is the bill’s chief sponsor.
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Critics like Democratic Representative Mary Wolfe (silent E) of Clinton say the bill “changes the rules” for the project “in the middle of the game.”
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Kaufmann says Rock Island Clean Line developers have kept property owners hanging for too long.
