Posted Thursday, May 10, 2012 --- 7:30 a.m.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin regulators are set to approve a power line that would run between Alma and Holmen in western Wisconsin.

The Public Service Commission is expected to decide during a meeting Thursday whether Northern States Power Company, Dairyland Power Cooperative and WPPI Energy can go ahead with the project.

The line could run as far as 55 miles and cost as much as $234 million depending on the final route. It would link to a larger transmission project dubbed CapX2020 that would serve Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas.

The utilities say they need the line to serve rising regional and local demand. Opponents counter the project is too excessive for the La Crosse area and would cut through one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the state.

Copyright 2012. The Associated Press.