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DOE ends partnership with Clean Line transmission project into southeastern US

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DOE ends partnership with Clean Line transmission project into southeastern US

The U.S. Department of Energy said March 23 that it is ending a partnership with the developer of the planned 700-mile Plains and Eastern transmission line into the southeastern U.S., another sign that the project may never be built.

"The DOE and Clean Line Energy have mutually agreed to terminate their participation agreement, therefore DOE will be ending its participation in the Clean Line Plains and Eastern project," a DOE spokesman confirmed in a March 26 email. The "DOE remains committed to an 'all of the above' energy strategy, improving our nation's electricity infrastructure, and increasing the reliability and resiliency of the electrical grid," the agency added.

The Plains and Eastern Clean Line transmission project has been in development since 2010, and the DOE entered into an agreement in March 2016 to support its development. Clean Line proposed the high-voltage, direct-current line to move up to 4,000 MW from the Oklahoma Panhandle to a substation in Tennessee and on to customers in the Southeast by way of Arkansas. The line could bring low-cost wind power to power grids in the central and southeastern U.S. operated by the Midcontinent ISO, Southwest Power Pool and Tennessee Valley Authority. Clean Line had planned to seek financing to cover the overall cost of the project, estimated at about $2.5 billion, which would have been paid off by selling transmission capacity to wind project developers and utilities.

"The nature of the project has changed substantially since the DOE and Clean Line entered into an agreement," Sarah Bray, spokeswoman for project developer Clean Line Energy Partners LLC, said by email March 23. In December 2017, Clean Line sold the Oklahoma portion of the project to NextEra Energy Resources LLC, a subsidiary of Florida-based utility NextEra Energy Inc.

Clean Line had won approvals from regulators in Oklahoma and Tennessee but faced strong resistance from Arkansas policymakers and landowners. In a statement, the Arkansas congressional delegation called the DOE's decision a "victory for states' rights and a victory for Arkansas." Earlier in 2018, the lawmakers sent a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry to pause or terminate the project, saying it is an example of federal overreach over state's rights.

"We are pleased that the DOE responded favorably to our request to terminate this agreement. We support policies that put our nation on the path to energy independence, but they should not cost Arkansas landowners a voice in the approval process," the federal lawmakers said. In the past two Congressional sessions, the lawmakers had proposed legislation to require the DOE to obtain state approvals before exercising the federal power of eminent domain to acquire property under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

President Donald Trump in January had included the Plains and Eastern line on his priority list for infrastructure projects.