The chairman of a key Senate energy subcommittee wants the Department of Energy to withhold its approval of a construction path for a $2 billion transmission line that would bring wind power from the plains of Texas and Oklahoma into the hills of the Tennessee Valley.
In a letter sent to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander questioned the need for and the value of a 700-mile, direct-current transmission route that Clean Line Energy Partners LLC is proposing to build through Arkansas.
“The project proposes to fill a need that is not present at this time and could force a comparatively expensive source of energy on Southeastern utilities that don’t need the additional generation,” Alexander said in his letter to DOE. “While the states of Tennessee and Oklahoma have approved the project, Arkansas continues to oppose the project. The use of federal eminent domain would strip Arkansas of their traditional property rights.”
Clean Line wants to erect a 700-mile high-voltage, direct-current line to carry wind-generated power from Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas to Memphis, where power could then be distributed along TVA transmission lines for TVA and other Southeastern utilities.
Because Arkansas regulators balked at granting state utility status for the privately owned line, Clean Line is trying to team up with the Southwestern Power Administration in a public-private partnership that would be allowed to build transmission lines through Arkansas. The agreement must still be approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, which has extended the period for public comments on such a partnership.