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United States court raises order blocking $655 mln clean-energy transmission line

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday raised a lower court's order obstructing a land exchange required before developers can construct a major cleanenergy transmission line through a Mississippi River wildlife sanctuary.

A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stated a Wisconsin federal judge's initial injunction provided in March obstructing deal with a last stretch of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek high voltage line, which has already cost developers $655 million, was not justified.

The appeals court said the lower court needed to identify the three ecological groups that challenged the swap - the National Wildlife Haven Association, Driftless Location Land Conservancy and Wisconsin Wildlife Federation - were most likely to succeed in their suit, but did not do so.

The choice lifts a significant obstacle stopping designers ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative from clearcutting a path through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Haven for the power line, which would connect Iowa and Wisconsin.

The ecological groups, which claimed in their suit filed in March that the land swap would unlawfully damage floodplains and fragment essential wildlife habitat, asked the Wisconsin court for a short-lived restraining order hours after the 7th Circuit's choice.

The U.S. Interior Department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which authorized the land exchange, the environmental groups and the designers did not instantly react to requests for comment.

The designers of the 102-mile (164 km) power line say the it will connect more than 160 renewable energy projects to the Midwestern energy grid when complete.

The land exchange at the heart of the claim was approved by the federal government in February and would switch around 20

(source: Reuters)