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CLEAN LINE PROJECT APPROVAL RECEIVES DIRTY LOOK FROM DELEGATION
A nearly 700-mile long energy project got approval from the U.S. Department of Energy on Friday (March 25) with House and Senate lawmakers condemning the approval.

The $2 billion wind energy project starts in Oklahoma and travels through Arkansas, Tennessee and other states. The Arkansas line starts in Crawford County and goes through north central and Northeast Arkansas, ending in Mississippi County before picking up in Tennessee.

In a statement, Arkansas’ congressional delegation – U.S. Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and U.S. Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, French Hill, R-Little Rock, Steve Womack, R-Rogers and Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs – attacked the federal cabinet department’s decision.

“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. Despite years of pushback on the local level and continuous communications between our delegation and Secretary Moniz, DOE has decided to forgo the will of the Natural State and hand over the historic ability of state-level transmission control through this announcement,” the statement noted.

“We now will begin the process of careful review over DOE’s decision and will continue to address our concerns through any avenue necessary. Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 establishes specific conditions that must be met before this authority is used, and we expect the Department to release all details of their review so that our staff and Congressional investigators will be able to continue the process of oversight. It is our firm belief that the DOE has overstepped its bounds and reversing this decision through the passage of the APPROVAL Act remains a top priority.”