We Energies plans 49-mile, $187 million gas pipeline

Timeline accelerated due to Foxconn, utility says

We Energies wants to lay a 2-footwide natural gas main across nearly 50 miles from near Whitewater almost to the site of the mammoth manufacturing campus being built in Racine County by Foxconn Technology Group.

The pipeline would cost an estimated $187 million to $196 million, We Energies said in documents filed last week with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. The company is seeking the commission’s approval to move forward with the project.

We Energies customers would pay for the new pipeline, “just like any other natural gas expansion project,” company spokeswoman Amy Jahns said.

She said the pipeline isn’t being built because of Foxconn — which recently began site-preparation work for what it says will be a $10 billion, 22-millionsquare-foot electronics manufacturing complex in Mount Pleasant.

“No, this project was already in the works previous to Foxconn,” Jahns said. “However, the timeline of this project has been accelerated because of Foxconn. Specifically, right now the (Wisconsin Department of Transportation) is doing some road work, and so we are accelerating our timetable to coordinate with the DOT.”

Early this month, speaking to analysts after We Energies reported its firstquarter financial results, CEO Gale Klappa said Foxconn would present the utility with new investment opportunities.

“We have plans that are now being developed and underway to provide both natural gas and electric infrastructure to the area that is now being called Wisconn Valley,” Klappa said, according to a transcript posted on the site of in-

vestment data firm Seeking Alpha. “The large-scale development will provide additional investment opportunities for us, including approximately $140 million of gas projects.”

Two different routes are being proposed for the new pipeline. Each is about 49 miles long. Both would start at a “gate station” southeast of Whitewater, in the Town of La Grange in Walworth County, and end at another station just west of I-94 and the Foxconn site in Mount Pleasant. That station would connect with gas pipelines running alongside, and into, the Foxconn site.

At least 200 parcels involved

Utilities build gate stations at points where they receive gas from large, interstate transmission pipelines.

The more northerly route being proposed, at $196 million, would extend through the towns of La Grange, Troy, East Troy and Spring Prairie in Walworth County, along with a small part of the Village of East Troy; and the Village of Rochester and Towns of Burlington, Dover and Yorkville in Racine County.

A southern alternative, estimated to cost $187 million, would run through the towns of La Grange, Sugar Creek, Lafayette, Spring Prairie and Lyons in Walworth County, along with a small part of the City of Elkhorn; the Town of Burlington and a small part of the City of Burlington in Racine County; and the Towns of Brighton and Paris in Kenosha County.

In either case, the gas main would cross more than 200 separate parcels of land. Typically, construction would involve digging a trench 8 feet wide by 7 feet deep.

Trees would be taken down. Generally speaking, no trees are allowed in a 20-foot-wide swath along a pipeline route, Jahns said.

We Energies has begun contacting property owners along the proposed routes, some of whom are unhappy about the project.

Jane Soderquist, who lives along 1st Street in the Town of Brighton, said she refused to give We Energies permission to do surveying and soil testing on her land.

“We don’t want it on the front of our property,” said Soderquist, who said she and her husband stand to lose trees, a garage and perhaps their septic mound system to the project.

Jahns said We Energies would “work closely with landowners to minimize any impact to their properties.”

No mention of Foxconn

In its application, We Energies doesn’t mention Foxconn. The utility says the primary purpose of the new pipeline would be to “increase the quantity and reliability of natural gas service, both on a peak day and annually, in southeastern Wisconsin given projected load growth, planned distribution facility modifications, and pipeline capacity alternatives serving southern Wisconsin.”

We Energies’ application for the 49mile pipeline says construction would begin in the summer of 2020, and be completed in June 2021. The shorter pipeline could start as early as this July, and be finished before November 2020, according to the application.