Public Service Commission grants final approval to JETx transmission line

BISMARCK, N.D. (Jacob Orledge – North Dakota Monitor) — North Dakota utility regulators agreed Wednesday to issue a route permit for a controversial high-voltage electrical transmission line in the eastern half of the state, referring many landowner concerns to the Legislature.

The transmission line, known as JETx, will consist of 150-foot tall towers along a 92-mile route in Dickey, LaMoure and Stutsman counties. The line will connect an Otter Tail Power substation near Jamestown to an MDU Resources substation west of Ellendale.

The utility companies applied for the route permit in August 2025. The commission hosted technical hearings in Bismarck and three public hearings in Ellendale, Edgeley and Jamestown.

Public Service Commissioner Jill Kringstad said the board heard more than 20 hours of testimony and reviewed around 6,600 pages of documents related to the $406 million project. The commission determined the two utility companies met all legal requirements for the permit.

“This decision, as with any other decision, has to be based on the law, and then the record and the facts of the case,” Kringstad said.

The project is under development by Otter Tail Power and MDU Resources to improve the reliability of the region’s electrical grid.

The project has become a controversial topic in the face of opposition from landowners and communities along the route. Kringstad noted the dozen hours of testimony from the public included a varied set of concerns including dissatisfaction with the minimum setback requirements, threats of eminent domain and the potential for the line to be used for data centers.

Most of those concerns are outside the jurisdiction of the commission and were not considered in making a decision on the route permit, Kringstad said.

Some landowner opponents questioned the point of the PSC’s public hearing process if their concerns can’t be taken into account.

“I guess I’m just kind of wondering, you know, what their actual jurisdiction is,” said Lucas Wald of Edgeley, one of the opponents who traveled to Bismarck for the commission’s meeting Wednesday.

Commissioner Sheri Haugen-Hoffart emphasized her personal preferences or beliefs on the merits of a project cannot factor into her vote.

“As your elected representative on the commission, I am bound to follow the law. The commission does not set policy; we apply the policy enacted by the Legislature, and we adhere to those legal requirements with precision and integrity,” Haugen-Hoffart said.

Changes to those requirements must be made by the Legislature, not the Public Service Commission, the commissioners said.

“They either adjust them or they choose to leave them alone,” said Randy Christmann, chair of the commission. “So I trust in our legislative process.”

Landowners opposed to the project said they were not surprised by the commission’s decision.

“We expected as much,” said Tim Leppert, a farmer near Edgeley.

Leppert and Wald said they still have many concerns about the project. They are worried about farmers’ liability along the route and the potentially higher cost of liability insurance once the transmission line is built. Wald said the state’s 500-foot setback requirements are insufficient for high-voltage transmission lines. The Public Service Commission’s order asserts state law supersedes local zoning regulations, such as the more stringent setback requirements implemented by some townships in the area.

But overall, the primary reason for the men’s anger is a feeling they were not allowed to voice their concerns during the process. They did not receive notice of an earlier certification process to determine whether the transmission line was necessary, and feel they were not allowed to voice many of their concerns during the public hearings on the siting application.

“We just never had a fair shake at any of this,” Wald said. “We never got our say here.”

Wald did not rule out working with legislators on a bill to address some of their concerns during the 2027 legislative session.

The commissioners did note some landowner concerns were addressed in the route permit. Otter Tail Power and MDU Resources will be required to implement dust mitigation strategies and adhere to road use agreements in order to accommodate farmers in the area during North Dakota’s short construction seasons.

The commission’s official order “specifically requires the applicants to repair and restore existing township and county roads used during construction to equal to or better than the condition prior to construction,” Kringstad said.

The landowners have a legal challenge to the project pending before the North Dakota Supreme Court. The court heard oral arguments in the case on Tuesday and has not yet issued a decision.

This story was updated with comments from commissioners and landowners.