Local Governments Are Pushing Back — and It's Working
Something remarkable has been happening in county courthouses across the Driftless region. One by one, local elected officials have been hearing from their constituents about the proposed MariBell 765kV transmission line — and one by one, they've been responding.
The wave began in Minnesota. Houston County, which sits directly in the path of the proposed line, became one of the first local governments to formally act, passing a resolution requesting detailed information from Dairyland Power Cooperative and GridLiance Heartland about the project's impacts, routes, and costs. The message was clear: before this community accepts a 200-foot industrial corridor across its farms and bluffs, it wants answers.
The momentum quickly crossed the Mississippi. In Wisconsin, Crawford County's board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in February 2026 demanding 18 specific categories of information from the developers, with a deadline of March 15. The requests ranged from detailed routing maps to projected impacts on customer electric bills over 20 years. Richland County followed suit shortly after.
Then came Vernon County — and they went further than anyone else. After a February 19 board meeting where Dairyland representatives faced pointed questioning from supervisors and passionate appeals from the public, the county passed not just an information request but a resolution explicitly opposing the siting of the line in their county. The resolution cited the Driftless region's "fragile ecology," its karst geology, its cold-water trout streams, and the threat to agricultural land and rural character. It was, in the words of one local observer, a prairie fire of opposition.
None of this happened by accident. It happened because ordinary people showed up.
On February 22, more than 200 residents packed the Gays Mills Community Commerce Center for a public information meeting organized by No 765 Line, a community opposition group. Attendees came from Vernon, Crawford, and Richland counties in Wisconsin, and from affected counties in Southeast Minnesota. They heard from forensic real estate appraisers and eminent domain attorneys. They learned about how need is calculated by transmission developers — and why those calculations deserve scrutiny. They asked hard questions. And they left more organized than when they arrived.
Rob Danielson, a landowner and researcher who has studied transmission opposition cases across the country, told the crowd that 17 transmission line projects have been stopped in the United States, with intense landowner opposition consistently cited as a key factor. "MariBell is not a done deal," he said.
The regulatory process for this line will unfold over the next several years. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission won't make a final decision until at least 2027. There is still time — but only if people stay engaged. The county boards have shown what's possible when communities speak with one voice.
Now it's your turn.
