(This story was updated to include comment from Liberty Utilities.)
A utility company is planning transmission line projects in the Ozarks, which have included sending notices of purchase offers and threats of potential use of eminent domain to acquire easements. Local landowners are pushing back and asking the Missouri Public Service Commission to require the utility to take additional steps before it can proceed.
Utilities in the region are making investments to strengthen the grid and improve reliability, as required by new regulations in the Southwest Power Pool. Among those is Liberty Utilities, which is building roughly 90 miles of 345 kV transmission line in Missouri. The project includes replacing the current 69 kV transmission line with a 161 kV line along the 26-mile corridor that connects Ozark Dam Substation in Taney County to the Ozark South Substation in Christian County. Liberty has dubbed this the Ozark-to-Branson transmission line…