Texas Knows Wind Power is Too Expensive..So Do Mainers- "Wind Catcher" Texas CANCELLED! WSJ
American Electric Power Co. AEP 0.98% said Friday that it is scrapping plans to develop one of the largest wind farms in the U.S., a day after the project was rejected by Texas regulators.
Called Wind Catcher, the 2-gigawatt project was slated to be built in the Oklahoma Panhandle at an expected price tag of $4.5 billion.
It would have served customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas via a related 350-mile transmission line.
The wind-power project had received needed approvals from regulators in Arkansas, Louisiana and the federal government, according to the company.
But on Thursday, the Public Utility Commission of Texas voted unanimously to deny it as currently proposed.
“I don’t believe that the benefits are there for the ratepayers,” DeAnn Walker, chairwoman of the commission, said Thursday before voting against the project, adding, “The benefits are based on a lot of assumptions that are questionable.”
AEP said it was pulling the plug on the project in part because without speedy regulatory approvals, it wouldn’t be able to fully take advantage of federal tax credits that made it more economically attractive.
The company had hoped to complete the project by the end of 2020.
“We are disappointed that we will not be able to move forward,” said Nicholas K. Atkins, AEP’s chief executive.
AEP previously estimated that Wind Catcher would lead to $7 billion in savings, net of cost, for customers of its subsidiaries, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and Southwestern Electric Power Co., over 25 years.
It also said the project would support approximately 4,000 direct jobs during construction and 80 permanent jobs once operational.
Critics said Wind Catcher’s touted benefits to consumers were based on natural-gas prices rising substantially in future decades and argued that the project would have increased costs for consumers in the next decade.
Texas regulators’ denial of Wind Catcher came a year to the day after AEP announced it would purchase the project from Invenergy, a privately held firm based in Chicago that had been developing the wind farm.
Write to Erin Ailworth at Erin.Ailworth@wsj.com
Appeared in the July 30, 2018, print edition as 'Wind-Power Plan Scrapped.'
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Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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