By Michael Brooks

Facing opposition in Arkansas, a transmission developer is using an unusual tactic in order to garner public support for a proposed project: online petitioning.

Clean Line Energy Partners is asking signers of its Change.org petition to send a pre-written letter to the Department of Energy, telling “Secretary [Ernest] Moniz to support the delivery of low-cost clean energy to consumers” and approve the Plains & Eastern Clean Line, a $2 billion 600-kV high voltage, direct current transmission line. Clean Line posted the petition three weeks ago and, as of press time, has collected more than 2,400 signatures.

Online petitioning is usually utilized by activists and grassroots organizations for populist causes. In fact, those in opposition to the Plains & Eastern project started their own Change.org petition in January. It has gathered more than 1,400 signatures since then.

The line would stretch 720 miles, beginning in the Oklahoma panhandle, through Arkansas and end in Tennessee, southeast of Memphis. Clean Line is touting the project as a way to deliver up to 3.5 GW generated from wind farms in Oklahoma to customers in the Southeast.

The Plains & Eastern is the first transmission project being developed with the U.S. Department of Energy under the Energy Policy Act of 2005’s Section 1222. The department issued a request for proposal under the section in 2010 and selected Clean Line for the project in 2012.

The section allows for the department’s Western Area Power Administration or Southwestern Power Administration to partner with private companies in developing new transmission facilities if the department determines that they are necessary to reduce congestion or meet demand. The facilities must be located in states in which the power administrations operate. SWPA owns transmission lines and facilities in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The Energy Department is currently evaluating public comments on its draft environmental impact statement for the project. Meanwhile, the department requested updates to Clean Line’s application in December 2014. The public comment period for this “Part 2” application ends June 12.

Battle for Public Support

The pre-written letter in the petition tells Moniz “I am writing to express support for the Plains & Eastern Clean Line and to urge the Department of Energy and Southwestern Power Administration to participate in the proposed project.”

Clean Line’s petition is just one of the tools it’s using to help supporters submit comments during the public comment period, said Sarah Bray, the company’s director of communications.

“We’ve been engaging with supporters in all kinds of ways,” Bray said. “We have a tremendous amount of support for this project. You wouldn’t think people would mobilize for a transmission line … it’s been really exciting to see.”

Many in Arkansas, however, oppose the project. According to the Times Record, multiple cities have passed resolutions opposing the project. Last week in Van Buren, multiple residents spoke in opposition to the line, even after the city’s mayor and council received a presentation from a Clean Line representative who highlighted the boon in jobs and tax revenue the area would see as a result of the project.

In February, Arkansas’ two senators, Republicans John Boozman and Tom Cotton, introduced the Assuring Private Property Rights Over Vast Access to Lands (APPROVAL) Act. The legislation would require the Energy Department to receive approval from the governor and public service commission of a state in which the department wanted to exercise eminent domain for Section 1222 projects.

While eminent domain is often unavoidable, “this difficult decision should not be in the hands of Washington bureaucrats,” Boozman said. “If a project is not good for Arkansas, our governor or public service commission should have the power to say ‘no.’”

In January 2011, the Arkansas Public Service Commission denied Clean Line status as a public utility. The commission said that while it supports building transmission infrastructure in the state and that Clean Line’s efforts were “laudable and its work to be commended,” the line would not deliver power to Arkansas customers, a key part of the definition of “public utility.”

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Tennessee Regulatory Authority granted Clean Line public utility status in 2011 and January 2015, respectively.