When the Oklahoma legislature goes into session on Monday, one of the measures it will consider is House Speaker Kyle Hilbert’s proposal to fight any proposed energy transmission corridor in the state.
Unanswered is whether the Speaker’s plan is to oppose an ongoing transmission project supported by Invenergy.
Hilbert originally filed HCR1001 when word spread about the federal government’s proposed Delta-Plains National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. After Hilbert joined the Governor and other state leaders in publicly opposing the 645-mile electric transmission corridor intended to cross Oklahoma from the Panhandle to the Arkansas state line, it was killed by the federal government.
“DOE can confirm that the proposed Delta-Plains National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor will not be moving forward in the designation process,” said Kristen Nawoj in the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office in a statement to OK Energy Today.
Still, Rep. Hilbert moved quickly to file HCR1001 whose stated purpose was, “Declares that the House and Senate will be committed to take legislative action to prevent the establishment of an energy corridor for power infrastructure in the state that would impede private property rights.”
The resolution includes large electric transmission lines for solar and wind generation farms. While the Delta-Plains corridor involved width up to 18-miles wide, Hilbert’s resolution applies to “any other such corridor regardless of its width which would condemn and confiscate private property to locate high voltage electric transmission lines, wind turbines, or solar energy farms.”
It further states, “THAT the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma State Senate commit to taking such actions that may be required to prevent impairment to the beneficial use of such private property resulting from the facilities themselves, any associated easements for construction, operation or maintenance of such assets or that would otherwise interfere with the unrestricted exercise of private property rights by affected property owners.”
While the federal corridor project as proposed is apparently dead, the Speaker’s resolution remains on the books and could be handled by the legislature, shoring up the stances taken by the state’s political leaders.
One unknown is whether the resolution would also include opposition to the ongoing Cimarron Link transmission project that will stretch across northern Oklahoma. The company has been working on obtaining leases of land over the past 18 months. Like the federal project drew opposition, the Cimarron Link has its detractors too and their opposition lies on the possible use of eminent domain for the acquisition of land.
OK Energy Today reported last month how some landowners ended up in court fighting the consideration of their land for the transmission line. Cimarron Link, the subsidiary of Invenergy, had sued the landowners but weeks later, withdrew the lawsuit.