Tuesday, November 10th 2015

In contrast to the Keystone XL, an enormous wind energy transmission project just cleared a key federal procedural hurdle:

From TriplePundit:

At four times the wattage of the Hoover Dam, Clean Line is billing Plains & Eastern as the “largest clean energy infrastructure project in the U.S.,” and in that regard it is expected to create thousands of temporary construction jobs, just like Keystone XL would have. However, the comparison ends there. Clean Line anticipates that construction of the new transmission line will also support hundreds of manufacturing jobs in the vicinity of its route through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. That’s a clear contrast with Keystone XL, for which TransCanada procured steel pipe manufactured overseas after promising that the bulk of it would be made in the U.S.

When Clean Line announced the Energy Department’s seal of approval, its president, Michael Skelly, noted that the benefits of a private-sector investment of $1 billion in the transmission line would be amplified by enabling the wind-rich Oklahoma Panhandle region to take full advantage of its renewable energy resources. According to Clean Line, “several billions of dollars” will be invested in new facilities in the Panhandle.

Clean Line also emphasizes that the wind energy transmission project will directly benefit consumers in the mid-South and Southeastern U.S. — including millions of customers served by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) — with access to an ample supply of clean, competitively priced electricity. These states have less than optimal wind energy resources, and the new line will provide them with 3,500 megawatts of electricity sourced from wind.

Arkansas will also get 500 megawatts of wind energy from Oklahoma through the construction of a $100 million converter station, about enough to power 160,000 homes each year.

Read more at TriplePundit.com