CapX2020: Landowners want tweaks to 'buy the farm' law

Stearns County
This file photos shows a part of Stearns County where a major power line will be built.
MPR photo/Conrad Wilson

A group of farmers and other landowners hope state lawmakers will address some of their concerns over a major project to upgrade electricity transmission lines throughout Minnesota.

The $2.2 billion project is called CapX2020 and includes five projects being coordinated by 11 utilities in Minnesota. The result will be more than 700 miles of new electricity transmission lines in the state.

Utilities first started informing landowners of the construction more than five years ago.

But some of those affected landowners say the process of being bought out has revealed a need to update the law that regulates such purchases. The law in question is known as the "buy the farm" law, because it allows landowners to demand that utilities buy their entire property, instead of just the parcel needed to build the new transmission line.

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