North La. power line project revived after lawmakers halted it
19th August 2024 · 0 Comments
By Wesley Muller
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) – A proposed power line in north Louisiana that state lawmakers and landowners tried to block from development got a jumpstart last week after the Louisiana Public Service Commission gave initial approval to the project.
In a 3-2 vote, the commission accepted the recommendation of an administrative law judge to certify Pattern Energy’s Southern Spirit transmission project. The proposed 320-mile power line will connect the Texas electrical grid with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator network. The MISO grid covers most of Louisiana, Mississippi and the Midwest and reaches into Manitoba, Canada.
Commissioners Foster Campbell, D-Bossier City, and Craig Greene, R-Baton Rouge, voted against the project, while Davante Lewis, D-Baton Rouge, Eric Skrmetta, R-Metairie, and Mike Francis, R-Crowley, voted in favor.
Plans for the line begin at a power station in DeSoto Parish and deliver wind-generated electricity from the Texas grid to a power station in Choctaw County, Mississippi, crossing through north Louisiana.
Wind has been the cheapest source of electricity for the past several years in the United States and around the world, according to a study by the financial firm Lazard.
Southern Spirit applied to the Public Service Commission for site approval in February 2023, and the application was referred to the LPSC’s administrative hearings division, which acts as an arbiter to help settle dispute matters such as project proposals and utility rate increase requests.
Opposition to the project has come mostly from a few north Louisiana landowners whose properties would be impacted where the line would cross. They include James Marston III, who owns several tracts of land with active oil and gas wells.
Southern Spirit had been in negotiations with Marston, but the two parties couldn’t come to an agreement. That led state Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, to step in with legislation earlier this year to take away Southern Spirit’s expropriation rights.
Expropriation allows governments and utilities to force the sale of private land for public use and is typically used for development that serves a greater public need, such as a new highway or, as in this case, power line. The company has to prove the importance of the project and pay the landowner at fair market value for the property they want to acquire.
The legislation was approved with Seabaugh and other lawmakers arguing the power line would not deliver “one watt of electricity” to Louisiana. Although the power line would end in Mississippi, it would deliver electricity into Louisiana by way of the MISO grid.
After lawmakers got involved, Southern Spirit paused many of its land negotiations while it awaited a decision from the administrative law judge considering the company’s LPSC application.
In her final recommendation, Chief Administrative Law Judge Melanie Verzwyvelt declared the project is in the public’s interest. She agreed such a power line would offer greater electrical capacity, reliability and energy options for both the Texas and MISO grids with Southern Spirit bearing all the costs of the project, which have so far surpassed $2 billion.
In contrast, when Louisiana utility companies build transmission lines, they pass all the costs onto their ratepayers.
The judge also noted that the only testimony regarding Southern Spirit’s consideration of landowner convenience came from Marston, who admitted that the company tried to address his concerns.
Verzwyvelt’s decision was just a recommendation that the LPSC should certify the project as a transmission facility under their jurisdiction. It did not settle any land disputes between the company and the landowners or change anything the Legislature did with regards to expropriation rights.
At last week’s meeting, Skrmetta said he is “agnostic” about whether or not the transmission line is built because the judge found it has no costs to Louisiana ratepayers.
Greene said he thought commission approval was premature and floated the idea of having a LPSC consultant study the project, though hiring such a consultant would subject Louisiana ratepayers to costs for a project that isn’t supposed to impact them.
The commission didn’t accept all of the judge’s recommendations. Following prodding from Marston’s attorney, Skrmetta added a caveat to the final motion that rejected the judge’s recommendation regarding a cost-benefit analysis with the additional condition that “at no point now or in the future shall any design and construction costs associated with this transmission line be borne by the ratepayers of the state of Louisiana.” The caveat essentially allows the project to move forward with a reassurance that the costs won’t fall on Louisiana ratepayers.
Southern Spirit still has many more hurdles to clear before it can begin construction, including political obstacles in Mississippi and grid impact studies with MISO, which MISO representatives said will take about three years. The company also still has to settle its land dispute with Marston and broker many other land agreements as it has only secured roughly 45 percent of the property needed for its route.
This article originally published in the August 19, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
