TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Industry and government officials agree the U.S. needs what amounts to a new interstate highway system for electricity if it is to fully harness wind power.

They're looking to utilities and other companies to build new transmission lines, and a fight has started in Kansas for the right to build _ and profit from _ the first stretches of a regional, high-voltage circuit.

Two rival projects, each expected to cost $2.2 million a mile, are in the works to link Wichita to southwest Kansas through the region's highest-voltage lines. Their backers have competing applications before state regulators.

One project is from ITC Great Plains, a Topeka-based subsidiary of a Michigan transmission company. The other involves Westar Energy Inc., the state's largest electric utility; an Ohio-based energy company, and another firm with ties to billionaire investor Warren Buffet.

Whoever prevails, the new lines could carry up to six times as much electricity as the biggest existing lines in the area. Those lines would allow large volumes of power to move from wind farms to consumers and help meet a growing demand for electricity.

``We need more transmission all around the country,'' said Jim Owen, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group for investor-owned utilities. ``Even the face of an economic downturn, we'll still have growth in electricity demand.''