Real Estate & Property Law

345-kilovolt transmission line to carry electricity from wind farms

By Alan Ackerman

Enid News

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two judges in northwestern Oklahoma have ruled for Oklahoma Gas and Electric in its attempts to gain private property through condemnation so it can build a high-voltage oltage transmission line.

OG&E wants to build a 112-mile-long, 345-kilovolt transmission line to carry electricity from wind farms near Woodward to Oklahoma City.

Landowners argued OG&E would use the lines for private purposes because it wanted to sell much of the electricity out of state.

But judges in Blaine and Dewey County ruled Monday in separate cases that OG&E has shown its customers in Oklahoma would also benefit and the condemnation should be allowed…

Some landowners have said they fear the line will devalue their properties, obstruct their views, create dangers for crop dusters, damage global-positioning systems on expensive farming equipment and create health risks for landowners who have pacemakers.

For the most part, the propriety of the routing is to be determined at the administrative hearing level. The hearing will be at the Federal (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) or state public service (utility) commission.

In the best of circumstances, the chance of a successful challenge at the trial court level is minuscule.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on May 31, 2009 (boomark / email).