Wind Power News: Arkansas
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
A utility wants to build America’s largest wind farm—and get customers to pay for it
On the gusty Oklahoma Panhandle, a fight is escalating over a $4.5 billion wind power project that stands to reshape the way Americans pay for clean energy. Across 300,000 acres (121,206 hectares) utility giant American Electric Power Co. is trying to pull off something no other company has attempted at this scale: It wants to build the nation’s largest wind farm – and it wants up-front guarantees from regulators that customers will pay the bill. The plan calls for tapping a . . . Complete story »
DOE drops its deal with Clean Line; Wind project won’t cross Arkansas
Two months after planners gave up hopes of crossing Arkansas with a $2.5 billion wind-energy transmission line as doomed, the U.S. Department of Energy hammered a nail in the project’s coffin Friday by ending its participation in the Plains & Eastern Clean Line. The Energy Department made the announcement in Washington, reversing an Obama-era decision to back the project, which would have built a massive 700-mile power line from the wind farms of the Oklahoma to a terminal north of . . . Complete story »
U.S. withdraws from wind energy power line project
The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday withdrew from a 2016 agreement to partner with a private developer on a more than 700-mile transmission line that would have delivered wind power from blustery Oklahoma to Tennessee and beyond. The termination of the deal between DOE and Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners was mutual, both parties said in written statements. Clean Line’s proposed $2.2 billion Plains & Eastern transmission line was under development for eight years but faced substantial opposition from . . . Complete story »
Bad deal for state; Wind Catcher won’t benefit us
Advocates of Wind Catcher tout that this project is projected to create thousands of jobs, but the truth is those jobs will all be in Oklahoma, along with millions of dollars in tax benefits, meaning there will be no economic benefit for Arkansas. Yet, it will be SWEPCO's customers in Arkansas that will end up footing a large portion of the bill, and the risk. SWEPCO's customers in Louisiana and Texas will also bear costs associated with the project and the burden if Wind Catcher fails to fully qualify for the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC). Wind Catcher's ability to qualify for the PTC is imperative to the promised projected savings and, if the PTC is compromised, so are Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas consumers. The bottom line is that Wind Catcher expects electricity consumers in surrounding states to bear the risk of the cost to build and maintain the system while receiving none of the economic benefits. Complete story »
SWEPCO wind farm proposal sparks concern for Arkansans
A $4.5 billion dollar wind farm proposal by SWEPCO is in the works, but an organization believes this project will hurt Arkansan’s pocketbooks. According to SWEPCO, the goal of the Wind Catcher Energy Connection Project in Oklahoma is to deliver customers in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana more affordable power. Over the past few months, Protect Our Pocketbooks has released anonymously funded ads across the Natural State against SWEPCO’s Wind Catcher proposal “Our very concern is this project is ill-advised. It’s . . . Complete story »
Sparks begin to fly with Wind Catcher electricity transmission project
Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) on Tuesday (March 6) fired back at a group opposing the $4.5 billion “Wind Catcher” project designed to deliver wind-powered energy to Arkansas. SWEPCO, a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power, has asked the Arkansas Public Service Commission for approval for Arkansas elements of the $4.5 billion project that includes the purchase of a 2,000-megawatt wind farm under construction in the Oklahoma Panhandle, and construction of a 360-mile transmission line to Tulsa, where the . . . Complete story »
Arkansas regulators get proposed settlement on Wind Catcher case
Southwestern Electric Power Co., a unit of American Electric Power, has negotiated a proposed settlement with Arkansas’ attorney general and significant power users there that would give it part of the approval it needs to become the majority owner of the Wind Catcher Energy Connection project. Once built, Wind Catcher would be the nation’s largest single-site wind project. It is being built by Invenergy in Cimarron and Texas counties in Oklahoma’s Panhandle. The utility, along with Public Service Co. of . . . Complete story »
Arkansas’ delegation in D.C. seeks block of power-line plan, cites changes in project that would cross state
Arkansas government officials and many landowners along the path have opposed construction of the project, saying it would be an eyesore, lower property values, endanger migratory waterfowl and force landowners to sell property against their will. The project also faced opposition from some Tennessee lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander. In a Senate speech last year, the Republican called the wind-power project "expensive and unreliable" and urged the Tennessee Valley Authority not to commit to purchasing Clean Line's power. Last month, Clean Line ended its interconnection agreement with the nation's largest public power utility. The TVA had studied the possibility of purchasing the wind-generated power but ultimately declined to do so. Complete story »
Clean Line shelves Arkansas plans; Delegation steps up attack
As Arkansas’ congressional delegation stepped up its war Tuesday on a $2.5 billion wind-power transmission project, Clean Line Energy Partners has confirmed that it has shelved plans to string the controversial power line across Arkansas. Michael Skelly, the company’s president, told Arkansas Business that the direct-current project, which would have transmitted 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy from Western Oklahoma to eastern Tennessee, is basically on life support. “Everybody knows that if you can delay a project, you can hurt it . . . Complete story »
Environmentalists blast TVA for killing major wind project
One of America’s biggest wind energy projects is twisting in the wind, and environmentalists are blaming the Tennessee Valley Authority for the failure of the pioneering $2.5 billion effort to bring more renewable energy into the Tennessee Valley. Clean Line Energy Partners, a Houston-based developer of five major transmission lines for wind-generated electricity, has dropped its interconnection agreement with TVA for one of its most promising projects after the federal utility declined to buy what Clean Line officials said would . . . Complete story »
