Julie Morton recently filed a complaint against Scout Clean Energy sent to Arkansas Public Service Commission Director Michael Marchand raising concerns that the project is proceeding without going through a normal APSC permitting process that would evaluate need for the facility. Scout Clean Energy is proposing a $300-million Nimbus Wind Facility south of Green Forest that the company says would include 43 wind turbines, including 14 about 650-feet tall.
Morton was active in defeating the Clean Line high voltage transmission line proposed to transport wind energy across Arkansas from west to east to serve cities on the East Coast, with Arkansas taking the environmental impacts without receiving any of the energy. Morton lives in Crawford County and has worked in the energy industry for 42 years including in the oil and gas, electric utility, and more recently, solar and wind sectors.
“I have served as a landman/right-of-way agent in these industries, as well as a landowner representative,” Morton wrote in her complaint. “I have supervised the land segment of large projects. It is because of my experience that I am so concerned for the people of Carroll County. I volunteered to share my knowledge with them, and I have been listening to their fears and concerns. That is what prompted my complaint.”
Morton wrote that having been involved in meetings concerning major pipeline and electric transmission line projects from the planning stages through post-construction damages, she is familiar with the criteria these projects require. The first is the need for the project.
“I have never been involved in a project for which the need has not been proven first due to disruptions in the service or increased demand,” Morton said. “This wind project, according to Scout representatives, has no customers. So, the only people who feel the ‘need’ for this project are the investors. They are, apparently, attempting to rush the project before the federal wind subsidies expire in 2025.”
Morton said she is concerned about having wind turbines that tall and heavy on a karst ridge in Carroll County. According to Scout, each foundation will be 16 to 20 feet deep.
“This ridge is prone to shift and collapse even without such a drastic intrusion,” Morton said. “I have heard landowners’ stories of spontaneous sinkholes on their land. Again, in my experience, this is exactly the type of terrain a company avoids crossing, if at all possible. The danger of collapse, the number of caves and underground creeks make the ground naturally unstable. Scout claims the wind is consistent on this ridge, but the people who actually live there dispute that claim. Perhaps this is just an area that Scout feels they can exploit easily.
“However, my biggest concern is the lack of state oversight on this project. Scout is claiming that the APSC has no jurisdiction under Arkansas Statute A.C.A. § 23-1-101(5), as a wholesale generator only. They have stated that they are an independent power producer and will not be selling electricity in Arkansas. They do intend to connect to the AECC [Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp.] Dry Creek Substation. In a recent issue of the Eureka Springs Independent, Scout advertised ‘40,000 Arkansas homes to be powered by Nimbus Wind Farm,’ thereby diametrically opposing their previous claim of exemption because they were merely interconnecting in Arkansas, but selling no electricity. Having been through the processes of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission and the APSC before commencing with projects, I am fully aware of the regulations with which those industries must comply.”
As someone who has prepared for those meetings, Morton said she finds it irksome that Scout is getting a pass on normal regulatory scrutiny.
“Also, much of the landowner compensation is based on gross revenue,” she said. “How will the landowner know if the company is reporting gross revenue correctly without a regulatory agency through which they can verify that revenue? Again, they will only have the company to ask. The only state agency involved in the project is the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, and their concern is primarily protection of the species there. So, at this time, the State of Arkansas is protecting the bats and the eagles, but not the people.”
Morton has reviewed a copy of an unsigned easement for the project. She said she has read many types of easements and leases in her life, and has never seen one so skewed in favor of the company. There is a standard “confidentiality” clause in this easement that precludes the landowner from talking about the project, except to personal representatives, and they, too, are to be warned not to discuss the project.
“There have been numerous complaints from residents of Carroll County about not being informed of this project earlier,” Morton said. “Perhaps the reason was the stakeholders were under threat of legal action if they discussed it. And, the clause only binds the landowner, not Scout. There are numerous clauses that grant rights far beyond any I have seen. And, some, like the environmental liability assumed by Scout, that are normally much stronger. The most egregious clause in the easement, in my opinion, is the clause titled ‘Tax Credit,’ in which Scout states that if they don’t get the tax subsidies they are seeking, they reserve the right to change every clause in the easement, except the lease term and landowner compensation. The easement is over 30 pages long, and they can change all but two clauses, after the fact. I have never seen this in any contract I have reviewed. Because of the complexity of this easement, the longest I have ever seen, I fear those who did not seek legal counsel have signed away far more rights than they realized.”
Morton said she feels she has a stake in this project because she is native Arkansan “who loves my beautiful Natural State and does not want to see it destroyed merely for profiteers’ filthy lucre.” She said she also is very worried about the safety of the residents in the area of Nimbus and fears the lack of oversight to prevent shoddy construction practices on these huge turbines.
“If one collapses on this shifting land, to whom will the landowner turn, the company?” Morton asks. “An environmental disaster will not affect just the handful of people who signed easements, it will affect many of their neighbors as well, who have had no protection and received no compensation. The AG&F is certainly not going to help landowners with the issues I have outlined.
“I am, therefore, filing a complaint and asking the Arkansas Public Service Commission to investigate the true intent of the Scout Clean Energy Nimbus Wind Farm project. Are they or are they not going to sell electricity in Arkansas? And, I ask that the project be halted until the investigation is completed and the proper regulatory process has taken place.”