FORT SMITH -- The U.S. Department of Energy is getting varied comment over a proposed high-voltage transmission line that a Houston company wants to build across Arkansas to send wind-generated power from Oklahoma to Tennessee.
The fifth of six public hearings in Arkansas is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. today in Exhibit Hall A of the Fort Smith Convention Center at 55 S. Seventh St.
The last Arkansas meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday in the Fine Arts Building Auditorium at the University of Arkansas Community College in Morrilton. Earlier meetings were held on Feb. 9 in Newport, on Feb. 10 in Searcy, on Feb. 11 in Marked Tree and Tuesday in Russellville.
The Energy Department is seeking public comment on an application by Clean Line Energy Partners LLC to partner with the department on the project that would deliver by direct current about 3,500 megawatts of power generated by a proposed wind farm in western Oklahoma to the Mid-South and Southeast by interconnection with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Co-chairmen of the Arkansas Legislature's Joint Committee on Energy, Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, and Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, wrote a letter dated Feb. 9 to U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz opposing the line.
"The Joint Committee on Energy of the Arkansas General Assembly expresses its opposition to the strategy of circumvention that leaves the elected lawmakers of this state outside the discussion of policies directly affecting the state and outside discussion of the potential of awarding of the power of eminent domain over Arkansas lands to Clean Line Energy Partners," the letter stated.
Clean Line was denied a Certificate of Public Convenience and Need from the Arkansas Public Service Commission in 2011 that would have given it the power of eminent domain in Arkansas to acquire the right of way for the transmission line.
The company then applied to the Energy Department to partner on the project. The Energy Department's participation would give the company the power of eminent domain that it could not get through the state.
Clean Line Executive Vice President Mario Hurtado noted Tuesday that the company had unsuccessfully sought state participation through the Public Service Commission. He said he believes the state and public will have input through the Department of Energy process, however.
Hurtado said he appeared before the Joint Committee on Energy last week and responded to Burnett and Ballinger's letter.
U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, both Arkansas Republicans, introduced legislation last week that would require the Energy Department to get approval from the governor and public service commission before exercising the federal power of eminent domain for Section 1222 transmission projects such as the one Clean Line wants to build.
The Arkansas Advanced Energy Association is supporting the project. The association, of which Clean Line is a member, is a trade association of companies and organizations that says it is dedicated to helping Arkansas create more jobs in the emerging renewable energy field.
"We support the Plains & Eastern Clean Line because it represents a half-billion-dollar investment in Arkansas, will generate hundreds of jobs in our state and will provide at least 500 megawatts of low-cost, clean energy to Arkansas electricity customers," the group said in a statement that Executive Director Steve Patterson added would be submitted at the Energy Department's public hearing Thursday in Morrilton.
The statement said Clean Line proposed to build a $100 million converter station in the Russellville area that would deliver electricity, through Entergy Arkansas, to 160,000 homes annually.
Opposition to the project has been heavy among the western Arkansas residents along the proposed transmission line route. Foes say property values will fall, they will lose the use of their land and living near the line could cause health problems.
NW News on 02/18/2015