Trump list backs project resisted by Arkansas congressional delegation

WASHINGTON -- An energy project that is sharply opposed by members of the all-Republican Arkansas congressional delegation was on President Donald Trump's pre-inauguration "priority list" of "emergency and national security projects," according to a document obtained by the Kansas City Star and released Tuesday.

A spokesman for the president cautioned late Tuesday that the list is not a White House policy document.

An article by the Star and the McClatchy Washington Bureau described it as "a first glimpse at which projects around the country might get funding."

The Plains and Eastern Clean Line would carry wind-generated electricity from the Oklahoma panhandle to Memphis, running across the entire state of Arkansas. Once the electricity reaches the power grid in Tennessee, it could be routed, potentially, across the southeastern United States.

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The privately funded, 720-mile-long, $2.5 billion project was listed as No. 9 among the new administration's 50 infrastructure priorities.

"This is a national security project that can add resiliency to our electrical grid," the pre-inauguration document stated.

Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners has fought to secure government approval for their project, which would carry 4,000 megawatts, enough power to supply 1 million homes, company officials said. The line would enter Arkansas just north of Van Buren and would exit the state south of Wilson in Mississippi County, if the preferred route were adopted.

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The list was released on the same day that Trump signed an "Executive order expediting environmental reviews and approvals for high priority infrastructure projects."

It calls for streamlining and expediting, "in a manner consistent with law, environmental reviews and approvals for all infrastructure projects, especially projects that are a high priority for the Nation, such as improving the U.S. electric grid and telecommunications systems and repairing and upgrading critical port facilities, airports, pipelines, bridges, and highways."

The total estimated cost for the 50 projects would be $137.5 billion, though 50 percent would come from private investment, the pre-inauguration document stated.

The top priority, known as the Gateway Program, is a $12 billion reconstruction of the Northeast Corridor rail lines linking New York City and Newark, N.J.

The Clean Line project is the only Arkansas project on the list. Opponents have been battling for years to block it.

Critics say the project would harm property values and could threaten migrating waterfowl, and they question whether the energy is needed.

Supporters say the project would be environmentally friendly and provide a huge amount of renewable energy that would have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional power plants do.

The Oklahoma-to-Tennessee transmission line received approval from President Barack Obama's administration in March. But efforts are underway in Congress to derail any federal approval.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Rogers, Ark., sponsored legislation that would prevent the federal government from "using the power of eminent domain to implement modernization of electricity transmission infrastructure" unless it receives permission from the governors and public utility commissions of the states where the property would be taken.

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, also of Rogers, filed a House version of the bill, as well.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle, Ark., co-sponsored Boozman's legislation. Arkansas' U.S. Reps. French Hill of Little Rock, Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs and Rick Crawford of Jonesboro are co-sponsors of the House version.

Known as the Assuring Private Property Rights Over Vast Access to Land (Approval) Act, it cleared the House Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 19-11, but it never came up for a vote in the full House.

The sponsors continue to have concerns about the project, their spokesmen said in written statements.

"While Congressman Womack is still reviewing the document, he remains firmly opposed to this unprecedented Obama Administration project that takes land from rural Arkansans to subsidize clean energy initiatives for the benefit of a private entity," Womack spokesman Claire Burghoff said.

Boozman spokesman Patrick Creamer had a similar reaction.

"We are reviewing the document, but the Senator remains firmly opposed to the project and will continue to fight against this lingering overreach of the Obama administration," he said.

Crawford said in a written statement that his position on the project has not changed.

"Opponents of the clean line energy plan include individual property owners and agriculture producers who almost unanimously said the same thing -- this was an executive overreach by President Obama. I don't believe President Trump should consider backing such an unpopular program," he said.

Metro on 01/25/2017