Residents in the path of an electric utility expansion have failed in their latest efforts to have the courts put a pause on the process. Since this past January, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission has been reviewing the proposal for a 138 kilovolt power line through the Town of Mitchell, connecting to a new substation to be constructed near Plymouth. The project is intended to supply energy to expanding populations and industry in that area, and the preferred route that appears headed for final approval crosses legacy and award-winning family farms and open natural areas that are largely undisturbed.
Affected residents were hoping that their objections heard on Tuesday would be enough for Judge Rebecca Persick to intervene, nullifying for the time being the approval that the Public Service Commission granted the project this past June. In the end, however, Persick upheld the decision to go forward…