MILWAUKEE (AP) - Utility officials have not submitted an application for the construction of a 250-mile transmission line that would cut through parts of central and northwestern Wisconsin, but already the opposition is mounting over the project.

Wisconsin regulators say they have been flooded with more than 10,000 cards, letters, e-mails and faxes on the subject, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in its early Sunday editions.

The negative sentiment is the largest response the state Public Service Commission has received on any topic in more than 20 years, when utilities had a handful of nuclear power plants on the drawing boards, the Journal Sentinel said.

The transmission line, which would cost between $125 million and $175 million, would run from Wausau to Duluth, Minn.  The line called Power Up Wisconsin would be built by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay and Minnesota Power Inc. of Duluth.

The line would cut through farmland and forests and across numerous water ways.  Wisconsin Public Service and Minnesota Power are proposing pathways for the power line that could cross rivers such as the St. Croix, Brule, Namekagon, Chippewa and Wisconsin.

The utilities estimate they will build 90- to 120-foot-high towers every 800 feet of the way.

Although the line would help supply power to southern and eastern Wisconsin, it would traverse mostly isolated areas of northwestern Wisconsin.

The final decision on the project and where to build it will be up to the three-member PublicService Commission.  PSC members believe the state needs more power and more transmission lines, the Journal Sentinel said.

Wisconsin depends on overburdened transmission lines that bring power from other states just to maintain minimum reserve capacities, PSC spokesman Jeff Butson said.

"We certainly find it troubling that we are unable to convince people of the relative need to build or construct new electric infrastructure in the state of Wisconsin," Butson said.

At least eight county boards and many town and village boards have passed resolutions opposing the project, including the Marathon County Board.

"My big fear is that the decision will be made by three people in Madison - people who don't live up here and don't understand how we live," said Marathon County Board Chairman Keith Langenhahn.

County residents have told officials that saving green space is their top priority for the next 20 years, Langenhahn said.

Two busloads of people are planning to voice their concerns about the plant to the Public Service Commission and legislators Tuesday in Madison.

Opponents have organized a group called Save Our Unique Lands and hired a lawyer, organizer and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Garvey to help plot a strategy against the line.

"I do not consider myself too much of a NIMBY," said Price County resident and SOUL leader Linda Ceylor, referring to the not-in-my-back yard attitude.  "But when I saw that the power line could go through my property, I almost became physically ill."

Similar opposition has been mounted against other projects including a transmission project across the St. Croix River in western Wisconsin, a power plant in eastern Dane County and wind farms in Kewaunee and Washington counties.

But the state's utility industry, businesses and others say the power line is badly needed.

Wisconsin has struggled with electricity shortages for at least three summers because of a shortage of power plants and an insufficiency of transmission lines that can move power over vast distances.

The state has not suffered blackouts, but utilities have been forced to plead with their customers to conserve power on peak-demand days, and hundreds of companies across eastern and southern Wisconsin on low-rate "interruptible" plans have lost power and been forced to shut down when electric supplies dried up.

The state Department of Administration estimates that electricity sales have increased 150 percent since 1970, but during that time, almost there are no new transmission lines.

"I don't think there is any doubt that we need this line," said Larry Borgard, vice president of transmission at Wisconsin Public Service. "I have received a whole heck of a lot of letters and most of them are for the project - many of them are business owners and people in economic development who know that we need the power."