High-voltage power line through Mississippi River refuge approved by federal appeals court

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal appeals court has cleared the way for utilities to finish building a high-voltage power line across a Mississippi River refuge. American Transmission Company, ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative are in the final stages of constructing a 102-mile transmission line linking Iowa’s Dubuque County and Wisconsin’s Dane County. About a mile of the line would cross the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Conservationists won a preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge William Conley in March putting construction on hold, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction on Thursday.