CU project controversy
The CU project controversy[1] involved years of protest against a proposed high-voltage direct current powerline that was erected on the property of hundreds of farmers in west central Minnesota in the late 1970s.
Opposition to the powerline began in 1974 and involved political parties, churches, civic organizations, and businesses in several different Minnesota counties.
[2] Farmers employed tractors, manure spreaders, and ammonia sprayers and used direct action and civil disobedience in an attempt to prevent construction of the line.
Powerline protests drew national attention when over 200 state troopers, nearly half the Minnesota Highway Patrol, were deployed to ensure that construction of the line would continue.
[9] During a two-year period, a group of opponents to the line who called themselves "bolt weevils" tore down 14 powerline towers and shot out nearly 10,000 electrical insulators.
[13] The REA began to distribute loans to groups involved in increasing access to electricity in the rural United States.
The UPA and CPA traditionally purchased most of their power from the Bureau of Reclamation's Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in North Dakota.
The UPA and CPA believed that consumers would switch to electricity as a source of power to avoid high oil prices.
[18] As well, the UPA and CPA needed the CU project to meet their agreements with the Mid-continent Area Power Pool (MAPP), an association of twenty-eight utilities serving seven states in the Midwest.
[3] The REA had financed other lignite coal generators in North Dakota, three of which were among the ten most economical plants in the country in the early 1970s.
[5][21] When the project was announced, there was only one other comparable high voltage powerline in the United States: the Bonneville Power Administration's Pacific Intertie that runs from Oregon to Los Angeles.
[23] The lignite uncovered by the draglines travels by conveyor belt to Coal Creek Station, the largest lignite-fired plant in North Dakota.
The powerline crosses nine western and central Minnesota counties and includes a total of 659 towers placed at one-quarter mile intervals on the property of 476 landowners.
In 1973 the UPA and CPA hired a consulting firm which used a numbering system to assess the value of the land between North Dakota and Minnesota.
[26] Opponents believed that the CPA and UPA "demand forecasts might be self-serving" and that alternatives to building the line such as conservation were not seriously considered.
[4] Following the EQC decision to issue a construction permit to the CPA and UPA and several years of legal battles and public hearings, farmers were "no longer in a mood to work within the system".
Following the events of June 8, farmers notified each other by CB radio regarding surveying activities and turned out in groups to block the surveyors' work.
[53] The Lowry town hall became the headquarters where protesters, some having traveled from surrounding counties, would gather every morning to make plans.
[44] Beginning in August 1978, a group that called themselves the "Bolt Weevils" began to sabotage power line towers and shoot out electrical insulators.
[68] The UPA and CPA launched a public relations campaign to communicate to customers that vandalism would lead to electric bill increases.
