A host of Wisconsin businesses, labor unions and state and localgovernment officials have rallied behind the proposed GuardianPipeline as their last, best hope of injecting natural gascompetition into the state. The coalition, which includes GovernorTommy Thompson, said the proposed 147-mile, $230 million interstatepipeline can create competition with ANR Pipeline, resulting inlower energy prices for consumers and increased reliability.

To date, ANR is the only company to successfully supply gas tothe state of Wisconsin. It is in the process of getting a $37.5million expansion approved by FERC. If approved, the expansionwould add 200 MMcf/d to ANR’s system in the state. Other projectsdesigned to serve the area, such as the Viking Voyageur and theIllinois-Wisconsin Express, were never able to be completed.

“A second natural gas pipeline serving southeast Wisconsin willhelp our business members by providing a competitively priced andample supply of natural gas,” said Dick Olson, executive directorof the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, an association of some ofthe state’s largest energy users. “Other states have access to morethan one natural gas supplier and have realized real cost savings.The Guardian project will help us keep pace with our regionalcompetitors.”

This outcry of support follows a plea made last month from a groupof 160 Wisconsin landowners along the proposed Guardian route callingfor the project’s dismissal. This group, called Neighbors StandingUnited, is petitioning Wisconsin Circuit Court to intervene in alawsuit filed by ANR against the Wisconsin Public Service Commission(see Daily GPI, July 26). ANR and thelandowners, who are led by Weenonah Brattset, want the court toreverse and set aside Commission orders conditionally approvingGuardian.

“Every single landowner in our group is prepared to take thisall the way through the courts to condemnation. If this [Guardian]pipeline is permitted, we would go in and appeal our property taxassessments be reduced to reflect the decrease in the value of ourlands because of the pipeline,” Brattset said last month.

Yet, others in the state hold different opinions than Brattset.”This project is good for our state and its workers,” said LyleBalistreri, president of the Milwaukee Building and ConstructionTrades Council, another group that voiced its support for Guardian.”The Guardian Project will provide a boost to our region’s economicdevelopment and will directly and indirectly benefit our membersand the state as a whole.”

Despite the objections from landowners, the project is in goodshape, said David Fantle, a spokesman for Guardian. He said thesupporters of the project are working with the “pockets ofobjecting landowners,” to iron out solutions. “Besides that, theonly objections we’ve heard are from ANR, but that isn’tsurprising.” Fantle added that the Guardian project will be filedwith FERC in the next few months, possibly as soon as this October.

Wisconsin Gas, which has already said it would subscribe to 650MMcf/d on Guardian, is planning to build a 35-mile service lateralto connect the Guardian line at Watertown with its Milwaukee-areadistribution system. Fantle said the LDC plans to file the lateralproject with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission at the sametime Guardian is filed with FERC.

The proposed $230 million Guardian Pipeline project is jointlyowned by Wisconsin Gas parent WICOR, CMS Energy Corp. and VikingGas Transmission Co. Running from proposed interconnections withmajor pipelines at the Chicago hub near Joliet, IL, to Watertown,WI, the pipe would add between 750 MMcf/d and 1.1 Bcf/d of firmtransportation capacity, depending on market need, to the southernWisconsin and northern Illinois market in November 2002.

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