U.S. Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) joined other lawmakers in the House and Senate in sending a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE) late last week questioning why the department released a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Plains and Eastern Clean Line Transmission Project before addressing concerns aired in a previous letter by Arkansas lawmakers.
Joining in the letter were U.S. Sens. John Boozman (R-AR) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) and U.S. Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR), French Hill (R-AR) and Bruce Westerman (R-AR).
“The department should not have issued the FEIS before responding to our September 14 letter, which specifically urged that in your initial response to this letter, please provide an anticipated timeline for a comprehensive response and production of requested information,” the members said in the letter. “If the department can more quickly produce a complete response through a series of partial productions and responses, please provide an anticipated timeline for such productions and responses. This request, to date, has also been disregarded.”
The members also requested a meeting with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, asking the DOE to not issue a final decision on the wind-energy project until Moniz responds to their letter.