The Biden Administration’s Department of Energy is scrapping an 18-mile-wide electric transmission corridor proposed to span Oklahoma, just one day after Attorney General Gentner Drummond and incoming state Speaker of the House Kyle Hilbert asserted their opposition to the plan. Both leaders cited conversations with senior department officials informing them of the cancellation.
Drummond hailed the decision and thanked Speaker-elect Hilbert for his leadership on the issue.
“I am very thankful that countless Oklahoma landowners no longer live under the tyrannical threat of federal eminent domain,” said the Attorney General. “Speaker Hilbert’s leadership in this issue was truly impactful, and the property owners in his district and all along the proposed corridor should be grateful for his efforts.”
Drummond issued a letter yesterday morning to U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm outlining his stern opposition to the plan
“The proposed corridor will undoubtedly have a negative effect on property owners’ livelihoods,” he wrote. “The threat of Federal Eminent Domain to property owners is classic Federal overreach. Representing all Oklahomans, I will not sit idly by and allow it to proceed without exercising all lawful measures to protect the private property rights of our Oklahoma farmers and ranchers.”
Known as the Delta-Plains National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, it is one of several proposed corridors across the U.S. intended to expand the nation’s power grid. It would have stretched from the western panhandle through the Arkansas border, measuring up to 18 miles in width along the way.
Read Drummond’s letter of opposition.