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UPDATE 1-US court lifts order blocking $655 mln clean-energy transmission line

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday lifted a lower court's order blocking a land exchange needed before developers can build a major clean-energy transmission line through a Mississippi River wildlife refuge. A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a Wisconsin federal judge's preliminary injunction issued in March blocking work on 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 determine the three environmental groups that challenged the swap - the National Wildlife Refuge Association, Driftless Area Land Conservancy and Wisconsin Wildlife Federation - were likely to succeed in their lawsuit, but did not do so.