Transmission Line Projects and Wisconsin Agriculture

Property owners should make an effort to be informed and to participate in the decision-making process before any final routes are established. While the project is in its early stages, to receive best consideration of your concerns, it is important to provide feedback on proposed routes, including identifying structures and other sensitive areas of your land and inform the developers of these concerns. 

You can bring these concerns to project developers through public open houses, using the “GeoVoice” tool on their website or through direct communication with the project team.  

Midcontinent Grid Solutions will host the first round of public open houses the week of August 24, 2026. Participants will learn project information, review detailed maps and provide valuable routing input during public comment. MGS is requesting public feedback on the study segments by September 7, 2026. 

Click here to find open house dates and locations. 

There will also be an opportunity to provide feedback directly to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) later in the process, but landowners are strongly encouraged to provide feedback as early as possible in the process. 

Here is a non-exhaustive list of suggested questions you may want to ask at the open houses:

• What requirements will contractors have to protect and restore agricultural land during and after construction? 

• What methods will the company employ to avoid construction dates that interfere with highway or field access for planting and harvest? 

• How will the line affect aerial spraying and agricultural drones? 

• How will you protect existing drain tile and other farm infrastructure and who is responsible for repairing potential damage? 

• How much land will I actually lose the practical use of around each tower? 

• If the line crosses my farm, how much flexibility is there to move towers to field edges, property lines or other locations that interfere less with farming? 

• Will you meet individually with affected farmers after the open houses before the route, tower locations and construction access are finalized to understand how each farm operates and identify ways to reduce impacts? 

• Does the compensation available to farmers include crop losses, soil compaction, drainage damage, reduced yields and the additional cost for difficulty of farming around towers? 

• Will structures and forests need to be completely removed from the easements?  

• Can the land within the easement continue to be farmed? 

• What happens if a landowner does not voluntarily agree to an easement? 

As a property owner, you have rights concerning survey access and requests for information; it is recommended that you engage early and often with the project team to ensure they are aware of your concerns.  

While formal land acquisition and easement negotiations will not begin until after the Wisconsin Public Service Commission Wisconsin (PSC) approves a final route, your best opportunity to impact route planning is early in the process. PSC approval is currently anticipated in 2027 or later. 

To help understand your rights related to specific concerns about impacts on your property, you should reach out to a private attorney. 

Click here to access the Wisconsin Farm Attorney list.

The MariBell and BECI transmission lines are two separate portions of a broader Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) regional transmission development plan to support reliability. These two portions of the broader project are being built by different development groups and are on different permit timelines.

Click here to learn more about the MariBell project. 

Click here to learn more about the BECI project. 

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) has the final say on if, and where, the project gets built. The developers will identify proposed routes to submit to the PSC in early 2027. Once the applications are submitted, the state will provide additional opportunities for public comments before making a decision on the project.  

Local governments throughout the proposed project area are increasingly taking formal action on the 765-kV proposal. We are seeing a growing trend of towns and other local units of government adopting resolutions expressing opposition or concerns about the project and its potential impacts on farmland, landowners and rural communities.

For those interested in encouraging their local government to consider similar action, the sample resolution below can be used as a starting point. The resolution is designed to be customizable so your town, village, city or county can modify it to reflect the concerns and priorities of your community.

If your local government has not yet discussed the project, consider sharing the sample resolution with your local elected officials and asking that the issue be placed on an upcoming meeting agenda.

Download the Customizable Resolution