WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s administration signed off Friday on Clean Line Energy Partners’ plans to build a power line across much of Oklahoma and all of Arkansas, drawing praise from environmentalists but condemnation from some on Capitol Hill.
The Houston company’s $2.5 billion project, shifting electricity generated by Oklahoma wind farms to consumers in the southeastern United States, “is necessary to accommodate an actual or projected increase in demand for electric transmission capacity,” U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wrote Friday.
The Energy Department will work with Clean Line on construction of the 705-mile-long high-voltage line, he said.
Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 gives the department the “authority to design, develop, construct, operate, own, or participate with other entities in designing, developing, constructing, operating, maintaining, or owning … electric power transmission facilities.”
This is the first time the department has used its Section 1222 powers, which can be exercised only in the event demand increases or is expected to rise.
Clean Line President Michael Skelly said Friday that his company hopes to break ground on the line toward the end of next year and to complete the project by mid-2020.
Clean Line says the power line would enable it to ship cleaner, lower-cost electricity east of the Mississippi River, creating hundreds of construction jobs in Arkansas and sparking $500 million in direct investments statewide.
The line cutting across Arkansas would carry 4,000 megawatts, enough power to supply 1 million homes. Unlike fossil fuel plants, the wind farms would produce the power without releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air, company officials say.
The line would enter Arkansas just north of Van Buren and would exit the state south of Wilson in southern Mississippi County if the preferred route is adopted.
A converter station in Pope County would enable up to 500 megawatts of the power to be delivered to Arkansas customers. The rest would cross into Tennessee, reaching the Tennessee Valley Authority and its 16,000 miles of power lines that stretch across seven states.
Arkansas government officials and many landowners along the path have opposed construction of the Plains & Eastern Clean Line project, saying it would be an eyesore, lower property values, endanger migratory waterfowl and force landowners to sell property against their will.
The company failed to win approval for the line from state regulators, but Clean Line filed an application with the U.S. Energy Department, seeking its approval.
The department said Friday that it would back Clean Line.
“Moving remote and plentiful power to areas where electricity is in high demand is essential for building the grid of the future,” Moniz said. “Building modern transmission that delivers renewable energy to more homes and businesses will create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and enhance the reliability of our grid.”
Moniz’s decision drew criticism from all six members of the state’s congressional delegation.
They also voiced support for legislation that would prevent the Energy Department from using eminent domain to obtain land without approval from the state and — if it crosses Indian property — from the relevant tribe.
U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton are the first two sponsors of the APPROVAL Act — also known as the Assuring Private Property Rights Over Vast Access to Land Act.
“Today marks a new page in an era of unprecedented executive overreach as the Department of Energy seeks to usurp the will of Arkansans and form a partnership with a private company — the same private company previously denied rights to operate in our state by the Arkansas Public Service Commission. Despite years of pushback on the local level and continuous communications between our delegation and Secretary Moniz, [the Energy Department] has decided to forgo the will of the Natural State and take over the historic ability of state-level transmission control through this announcement,” the delegation members said in a joint written statement.
“We now will begin the process of careful review over [the department’s] decision and will continue to address our concerns through any avenue necessary. Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 establishes specific conditions that must be met before this authority is used, and we expect the Department to release all details of their review so that our staff and Congressional investigators will be able to continue the process of oversight,” the statement said. “It is our firm belief that the [the department] has overstepped its bounds, and reversing this decision through the passage of the APPROVAL Act remains a top priority.”
The act, introduced in February 2015, has been referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Asked about the criticism, Skelly said, “I think that with any infrastructure project, again, if it’s a road or a pipeline or a railroad or a transmission line, you will run into some objections. … We believe this project is very good for Arkansas,”
He said his company is moving forward “under the current set of laws” but would adjust if the legal standard changed.
“We do take some issue with the prospect of laws changing when a project has been underway and many, many millions of dollars have been invested. … We do not believe that is the sort of thing that fosters investment, but again, we’ll work under the provisions of whatever laws are out there,” he said.
While politicians were critical of Clean Line, environmental groups voiced support for the project.
“The Sierra Club is celebrating today’s decision, which is a giant step toward bringing clean energy to our state and region,” Arkansas Sierra Club director Glen Hooks said in a written statement. “Putting thousands of megawatts of clean wind energy onto the grid — including 500 megawatts for Arkansas — will undoubtedly lead to less dirty coal and gas being burned for electricity. We are on our way to cleaner air, healthier citizens, and a booming clean energy economy.”
The Arkansas Wildlife Federation also approved.
“The Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmission project will provide substantial amounts of low-cost clean energy to Arkansas consumers, enabling significant pollution and water use reductions, for the benefit of people and wildlife in the Natural State,” President Ellen McNulty said in a news release.
Meanwhile, Arkansans who oppose the project said it’s not time to surrender.
“I’m a native Arkansan. I love my beautiful state. I don’t want to see another interstate-wide corridor carved across it, basically to pad the pockets of investors from New York and Great Britain,” said Julie Morton, a Crawford County resident and longtime Clean Line critic.
The fight will continue, she said.
“This is a new phase of the struggle and we’re fully prepared … to go on with our battle,” she said. ” I want the people of Arkansas to understand that this is still not a done deal. There are many hurdles that Clean Line still has to clear before they can build this monstrosity.”
Metro on 03/26/2016
Power line gets US green light
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