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The Dallas Morning News has flagged another transmission line dispute. These are cropping up all over, as billions of dollars in new transmission lines are being strung to carry electricity generated by wind turbines being built on the Great Plains. In West Texas, there are plans to string lines across the Palo Duro Canyon. (Above.) Landowners in the region and environmentalists are fighting the proposal.

It’s the same story we’ve written about several times before. Wind energy is being generated, but there are no lines to get the power to people. Power companies want to take the most direct route, because each additional mile of line costs $1 to $2 million, reports Elizabeth Souder. The Texas Public Utilities Commission has “hired several utilities to build a massive network of transmission lines to bring renewable wind energy from West Texas to the big cities,” Souder wrote. “Now those utilities are trying to draw the exact routes for those lines, and fresh environmental concerns are popping up.”

The Currie family is fighting the line drawn to cross the canyon. The family arrived in the Texas Panhandle in 1889. “My granddaddy bought this because he fell in love with it,” Jim Currie said.

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