A transmission line project proposed just this week for the Amarillo area is already stirring controversy, according to a news story in the Amarillo Globe-News. Writer Kevin Welch reports in the newspaper's June 17th edition on the application by Sharyland Utilities to build lines from southern Carson County to southeast Deaf Smith County. The utility has proposed the route shown above, although that route could change as more landowners express their views at the Texas Public Utility Commission.
"In all the cases we've been involved in, in none of them have the commissioners chosen the preferred route," Lloyd Gosselink attorney Georgia Crump told the newspaper. "They're trying to weigh all the criteria. It's not a science, it's an art." Among Crump's clients is a property owner with lines passing north of Palo Duro Canyon State Park.
Sharyland's application was among three filed by utilities this week for major transmission projects. The lines included in the applications will transmit power from wind generators in West Texas and the Panhandle, and are associated with the state's Competitive Renewable Energy Zone program, or "CREZ" for short.
The transmission lines proposed by Sharyland could impact property owners in Armstrong, Carson, Deaf Smith, Oldham, Potter and Randall counties. Separately, Oncor filed an application for lines that could impact landowners in Tarrant, Wise and Parker Counties. A third company filed an application for a transmission project near Abilene, with lines that could impact Kent, Dickens and Scurry counties.
With the filings this week, a procedural clock begins at the PUC under which the agency has 180 days to conduct hearings, consider testimony and render decisions.
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