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PSC grants power to pipeline plan

MADISON — The Wisconsin Public Service Commission granted eminent domain authority Thursday to a company that wants to extend a petroleum pipeline from near Whitewater to the state line.

In granting Enbridge Energy Partners the power to seize private property, the commissioners determined Enbridge affiliates, Enbridge Pipelines Lakehead LLC and Enbridge Pipelines Wisconsin LLC, should be treated as corporations.

For the most part, only legally recognized corporations can wield eminent domain, so the commissioners had to find that the Legislature intended to also recognize limited liability companies as corporations.

Commissioner Lauren Azar noted the pipeline will increase access for Wisconsin consumers to gasoline refined in the Chicago area by moving 400,000 barrels of oil a day.

Enbridge has largely completed construction of two parallel pipelines:

-- One from pipeline facilities in Superior to a pumping station near Whitewater. It moves crude oil extracted from oil sands in Alberta, Canada.

-- A second to return finished petroleum products along the same route.

Both pipelines follow an existing Enbridge pipeline.

An additional project extends the pipeline 22 miles along the Rock-Jefferson county line south to Pontiac, Ill. In documents filed with the PSC, Enbridge has stated it would need to acquire 158 acres of right of way in Rock County, of which 150 are farmland.

Thursday’s decision didn’t please an attorney for farmers near Clinton.

“It’s not in the public interest because there’s been no demonstrated public use for it in Wisconsin. This oil will be moved through the state and could be continued south to Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast for export to Asia,” said Jon Kingstad, a Minneapolis attorney who has represented numerous property owners along the entire pipeline route.

Among Kingstad’s clients are Gordon Widener and Kenneth Book, of Harvard, Ill., who have “substantial farming operations” near Clinton and “aren’t happy” with the prospects of an oil pipeline crossing their fields.

“It raises havoc with agricultural operations, it affects drainage, prevents tillage and they come with hazard like leaks and spills and explosions,” Kingstad said.

His clients are willing to negotiate a fair price for a pipeline easement, Kingstad said, but eminent domain gives Enbridge “an unlawful leverage.”

Enbridge spokesperson Denise Hamsher said eminent domain would be used as a last resort.

“Our experience in northern Wisconsin has been to come to a mutual agreement with property owners,” Hamsher said.

The PSC hasn’t chosen from three route alternatives identified by Enbridge, but Hamsher said easement negotiations have been underway with property owners near the Rock-Jefferson county line.