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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Landowners Need Better Compensation From Utilities

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Tuesday, October 8, 2013   

ST. PAUL, Minn. – As America's energy system undergoes a transformation to include more renewable sources, a new report finds the aging grid and the old, traditional policies on power transmission are not working.

Jonathan Hladik, senior policy advocate with the Center for Rural Affairs and report co-author, says demand continues to increase for affordable, clean and efficient energy. But getting it online can be challenging, so he suggests utilities find ways to better compensate landowners who are being affected.

"Maybe give them a share in the project once it's built. The value of their share can be equal to the land they gave up," says Hladik. "Or maybe we can give them annual payments that pay for the pole on the property, every year the pole is there. Make it something that they feel they're a part of."

The report cites another major barrier to transmission-line projects as the inevitable tangle of policies and regulations they encounter in the planning process, because most cross state lines to get energy to where it is needed. Hladik says the siting process needs to be streamlined accordingly.

"Let's say you wanted to build a line from Minnesota to Iowa," he says. "Iowa could have four agencies that all require a lot of paperwork and all require a lot of approvals, and Minnesota could have three more. And then, you could have the federal government that has another six – and that's tough."

Hladik adds utilities should be more transparent, flexible and interactive with landowners and communities in working through any possible opposition and agreeing on a plan that's beneficial to all involved.

The report, Siting: Finding a Home for Renewable Energy and Transmission, was prepared jointly by the Center for Rural Affairs and the Natural Resources Defense Council.



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