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DOE Over-reaches for 'Clean Energy'
An electricity transmission line that will The 700-mile Plains and Eastern Clean Line project will cross parts of 14 Oklahoma counties before going through Arkansas and ending north of Memphis, Tenn. The privately funded, $2.5 billion project will deliver about 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy. So no State Department review? No Presidential inaction-to-death? How much transmission loss in that 700 miles? And 4000 megawatts is the output of a couple of nuclear reactors. Big deal... "Building modern transmission that delivers renewable energy to more homes and businesses will create jobs, cut carbon emissions and enhance the reliability of our grid." Carbon-free jobs are better than oil pipeline jobs. And those wind farms don't effect the weather/climate any more than a butterfly flapping its' wings in China. By opening up new areas for wind energy and renewable energy development, the line will enable a little over 4,000 megawatts of new wind projects to be built in the Oklahoma panhandle." Just the transmission line; there's no power to be transmissioned yet. The federal government's transmission line participation is going through the Southwestern Power Administration, a federal agency that markets and transmits electricity from hydroelectric dams. The project will use the power administration's eminent domain powers as a last resort if Clean Line can't come to agreements with local landowners along the transmission line route. Which the engineering newsletter that gave me the link notes - Department of Energy, which invoked section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This means the 700-plus-mile line will be built regardless of any state objections. Which explains why Slick Willie's home state is upset. Members of Arkansas' congressional delegation said Friday they were disappointed with the involvement by the Energy Department. They said the federal government was going against the wishes of Arkansas regulators when they rejected the Plains and Eastern Clean Line in 2011. This is interstate commerce, you flyover rubes; the Feds take precedence! "Today marks a new page in an era of unprecedented executive overreach as the Department of Energy seeks to usurp the will of Arkansans and form a partnership with a private company -- the same private company previously denied rights to operate in our state by the Arkansas Public Service Commission." Sierra Club Executive Director called it a key step in growing a clean energy economy. "We've crossed a clean line towards building America's clean energy future and there's no turning back," he said. We won; get over it. However, "This approval amidst the current budget environment makes it crystal clear that the state must act now and stop all current and future wind subsidy payments," said the vice president of government relations for Continental Resources Inc., a member of The Windfall Coalition. "This project will increase the already outrageous amount of state dollars going to out of state wind developers who are selling their generated electricity to Arkansas and Tennessee. As a state we must act now." Posted by: Bobby 2016-03-28 |
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