An energy transmission tower carries electricity outside of LaPlace, La., on July 1, 2024. (Photo credit: Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
A proposed power line in north Louisiana that state lawmakers and landowners tried to block from development got a jumpstart Wednesday 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. MISO is the country’s largest electrical grid, supplying power to 15 states — including most of Louisiana, Mississippi and the Midwest — and even reaching 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. It might also connect to other generation sources, including fossil fuel sources, but wind energy in Texas has been booming over the last decade with over 18,000 turbines generating over 40 gigawatts or 28% of all electricity in the state. There is roughly half that amount of wind power in all of MISO.
Economics are driving the energy transition as 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. However, a severe lack of transmission infrastructure across the country has stalled the switch to renewables.
A large amount of clean energy — 930 gigawatts of generation along with 420 gigawatts of storage — are sitting in grid interconnection queues waiting to come online but cannot due to a lack of transmission resources, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy. They include solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear projects. The agency estimates the U.S. will need to expand transmission by 60% by 2030 to meet the nation ’ s climate goals.
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 disputed 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 large 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, a power line. Contrary to some misconceptions, expropriation doesn’t allow the government or a utility company to just take someone’s land. They have to go to court to prove the importance of the project and pay the landowner a fair market value for the property they want to acquire.
However, the legislation was approved with Seabaugh and other lawmakers arguing people would lose their land for a power line that 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.
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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, according to the judgement .
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 Wednesday’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 cost them anything.
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% of the property needed for its route.
Correction: This report was updated to more accurately describe a motion Commissioner Eric Skrmetta made regarding the administrative judge’s recommendations.
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