The proposed 720-mile, $2 billion transmission line that will cut through a dozen counties in Arkansas is unlikely to cause major environmental or social impacts because of its construction, according to federal regulators.
Earlier this month, the Department of Energy released a preliminary environmental impact study on Clean Line Energy's planned project that would run 3,500-megawatts of wind energy from Oklahoma, through Arkansas, to Memphis. It found that the Houston-based energy company's plans to mitigate serious environmental impact by the project would "minimize the potential" for major negative impacts on Arkansas land, water and native species.
A proposed converter station in Arkansas would generate about 400-megawatts, enough to power about 160,000 Arkansas homes, according to Clean Line officials.
Mario Hurtado, the company's executive vice president, welcomed the results of the more than two-year-long survey that not only measured impacts to ecological features but also assessed potential effects on recreation, culture, even noise levels, in lands crossed by the energy project.
Several federal agencies collaborated on the report, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
After the release of the preliminary study, the Department of Energy began a 90-day public comment period, which ends on March 19, and will hold several February forums in Arkansas communities near the project's proposed route.
The study pinpoints several temporary disturbances to agriculture, soil and vegetation, water and air.
It also stated that the project, which will use towers as tall 200 feet, will produce long-term increases in electric and magnetic fields as well as noise.
"The analysis also revealed positive impacts to long-term air quality from a displacement of fossil-fuel use for electricity generation and increases in regional jobs and tax revenues as a result of the Project," the study found.
The project would create about 1,000 temporary jobs and lead to anywhere from 72 to 87 full-time jobs for maintenance and operations, including some in Arkansas, once it is finished.
The report, with promises of new jobs and decreased pollution, hasn't swayed critics.
State Rep. John Hutchison, R-Harrisburg, led opposition to the project at hearings held at the joint gathering of the Legislature's State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee in November. He tried and failed to get the committee to adopt a resolution to encourage federal regulators and members of the Arkansas' delegation to halt the project.
Hutchison, who lost his seat in a May primary, said he will continue to fight a project he feels will do irreversible environmental damage to the Mississippi Flyway, a section of east Arkansas that is a staging area for waterfowl migration and generates millions in economic benefits to the state every year in tourism, hunting and related recreation.
The construction could hurt the wetlands where geese and ducks congregate and the lines would result in the deaths of "thousands" of birds, Hutchison said.
"Are Arkansans going to risk $2.1 billion a year in wildlife and hunting for them to come through and use Arkansas as a guinea pig?" Hutchison asked.
Despite Hutchison's worries about the wind-energy project, many environmental groups, including the National Audubon Society, a conservation organization that focuses on birds and other wildlife, support the project.
Glen Hooks, the head of the Arkansas chapter of the Sierra Club, said that any environmental impact resulting from the construction is far outweighed by the long-term good of having a major supply of clean energy.
"The wind is strongest where it's the furthest way from people and the grid ... [The project] gets clean energy to the people who need it. It's good for renewable energy, but also [helps] in the retirement of coal-fired plants," Hooks said. "This is not a more dangerous project than any other transmission line project is ... You don't hear these people raising concerns about other projects. I suspect their opposition is rooted more in protecting the fossil-fuel industry than any concern for birds."
The majority of Arkansas' energy is produced by coal-burning plants. Hutchison thinks the plants in the state "are doing a good job" at limiting their emissions and argued that once the Clean Line project is built, the damage it causes will be irreversible.
Clean Line's Hurtado said that he expects that the Department of Energy will not finalize its environmental impact study, or make a recommendation on the project, until late 2016.
Public forums, which will involve informational presentations on the project, as well as allow the public to weigh in, will be held in Newport on Feb. 9; Searcy on Feb. 10; Marked Tree on Feb. 11; Russellville on Feb. 17; Fort Smith on Feb. 18; and Morrilton on Feb. 19.
Metro on 12/27/2014