Citizen Coalition Urges Public to Weigh In as PSC Reconsiders ATC's Transmission Lines Application

Port Washington, Wis. -The Responsible Energy Alliance ("REA"), a coalition of residents in Ozaukee and Washington counties opposed to routing new high-voltage transmission lines through undeveloped “greenfield” land, is calling on the public to submit comments to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin ("PSC" or "Commission") urging it to revoke its December 2025 determination that American Transmission Company's ("ATC") application in Docket 137-CE-221 was complete.

The REA filed a renewed and enhanced motion Thursday asking the Commission to revoke that completeness determination. The motion follows an extraordinary pattern of changes to ATC's application. Since the Commission deemed the application complete in December 2025, ATC has broadly revised its own proposal by filing roughly 564 additional documents and 168 data-request responses. The volume of changes was so extensive that the Commission's administrative law judge was compelled to order ATC to produce redlined versions of its application, simply so that the parties could track what was actually being proposed.

Testimony filed in the weeks since REA's original motion in early July has only reinforced the case for revocation. Filings in the docket identify many questionable elements, including:

·An unverified multimillion-dollar double-count in ATC's cost estimates

·A failure to account for tens of millions of dollars in annual regional impacts

·An admission that non-transmission alternatives were never explored with the local utility

·Unresolved issues relating to indigenous Native American sites

·Insufficient time to complete endangered species surveys the project requires before it could lawfully proceed

The Commission responded to REA’s petition Thursday by issuing a formal Notice and Request for Comments, asking the public directly whether the December 2025 completeness determination should be revoked. Public comments are due no later than 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Commission is scheduled to take up the question at a hearing Thursday.

"This is a rare and direct invitation for the public to be heard on a question that will shape this docket for months to come,” said Pastor Patti Plough, co-leader of the REA. “An application that has changed 564 times since it was called 'complete' is not complete, and the Commission should say so."

The REA urges every resident who cares about the outcome of this docket, and the preservation of hundreds of acres of pristine natural resources, to take five minutes to submit a comment before the deadline:

1. Go to the Commission's public comment page at apps.psc.wi.gov.

2. Click "File a Comment."

3. Select docket number 137-CE-221.

4. Tell the Commission that ATC's application is too incomplete, too unstable, and too poorly explained to move forward on its current schedule, and that the Commission should revoke its completeness determination and require ATC to re-apply. Please address your comment to the Secretary of the Commission, Cru Stubley.

About Responsible Energy Alliance

Responsible Energy Alliance is a coalition of residents, landowners, and community members in Ozaukee and Washington Counties, Wisconsin, opposed to routing new high-voltage transmission infrastructure through undeveloped greenfield land when existing-corridor alternatives are available. REA is an intervenor in PSC Docket 137-CE-221.

This remains an ongoing matter and developing story. Further updates will be provided as more information becomes available.