SWEPCO harnesses
wind for customers
Southwestern Electric Power Co. is now using wind power to deliver electricity to customers in Arkansas and Louisiana through "the largest single wind farm ever built at once in North America."
The 998-megawatt Traverse Wind Energy Center is located in north-central Oklahoma and began providing energy on Monday, the company said.
"This wind energy helps customers meet their own renewable energy and sustainability goals and makes the communities we serve in Louisiana and Arkansas more competitive for economic development," SWEPCO President and Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Smoak said in a statement.
Traverse is the third and final wind project in the North Central Energy Facilities initiative in Oklahoma that will provide 1,484 megawatts of clean energy -- enough to power 440,000 homes. SWEPCO owns 54.5% of the project. Company officials say the wind facilities are expected to save customers about $2 billion in electricity costs over the next 30 years.
-- Andrew Moreau
Road work set near
Dollar General site
The state has agreed to provide more than $800,000 to pay for road improvements to accommodate a new Dollar General distribution center in North Little Rock.
The Arkansas Highway Commission recently approved a request from Arkansas Commerce Secretary Mike Preston to provide the money to pay for work on U.S. 70 near the 152-acre site on which the national discount chain intends to build a 1 million-square-foot facility that will employ, according to Preston, at least 285 workers when it opens in 2023.
The money is needed to re-time a traffic signal at U.S. 70 and Arkansas 91 in the Galloway area of the city and add eastbound turn lanes on U.S. 70 in front of the two driveways the site will have, according to recommendations from a traffic study performed to assess the facility's impact on existing roadways.
The money comes from Act 1 of 2016, which allowed 25% of state general revenue surplus money to be made available for highway improvements. In 2019, when the general revenue surplus exceeded projections, the commission adopted a policy that authorized the use of up to $15 million of that money for projects promoting economic development and competitiveness. The request meets the criteria, the commission said.
-- Noel Oman
Murphy USA climbs,
but state index dips
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 780.59, down 1.48.
Shares of Murphy USA rose 4.4% on Friday. Dillard's Inc. shares fell 4% and P.A.M. Transport shares dropped 3%.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.