Save Our Sunsets Oklahoma!
Media
Here are some links to media about our fight to save our sunsets. Videos are at the bottom.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Stillwater Newspress
Payne County grass roots group sees a win: 'Should not be allowed to use eminent domain'
A group in Payne County that organized against a federal high voltage transmission line designation saw a victory earlier this month when the U.S. Department of Energy dropped plans for a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor that would have gone through Payne County.
“Our group is pleased that the Delta Plains NIETC has been canceled,” said Rebecca Bostian Parrack, coordinator of “Payne County SOS – Save Our Sunsets/Stop Massive NIETC Corridor.”
Although the corridor will not proceed to Phase 3, Parrack said the fight against these projects won’t stop – and it’s unlikely the group will change their name: Review of the NIETCs, and the current status of their designation is subject to change and pops up every few years, Parrack said. They also wish to remain organized against the Cimarron Link project.
“A private, for-profit company that is not a public utility, and does not provide service to an end user, should not be allowed to use eminent domain,” Parrack said, which is ultimately what these fight is about.
The DOE combined and refined the boundaries of four of the 10 potential NIETCs from Phase 2 and has named three potential corridors that will proceed to Phase 3. But, the following potential NIETCs announced in Phase 2 are not moving forward in the designation process:
• New York-New England
• New York-Mid-Atlantic
• Midwest-Plains
• Mid-Atlantic
• Delta-Plains
• Mountain-Northwest
“DOE’s decision to not move these potential NIETCs forward does not constitute a finding that there are no transmission needs in these areas; rather, DOE is exercising its discretion to focus on other potential NIETCs at this time and may in the future revisit these or other areas through the opening of a new designation process,” it said in a press release out of the Grid Deployment Office Dec. 16.
DOE has a four-phase process for NIETC designations; the potential NIETCs moving to Phase 3 of the designation process at this time are:
freestar
• Southwestern Grid Connector Corridor, including parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and a small portion of western Oklahoma (in the panhandle)
• Tribal Energy Access Corridor, including central parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and five Tribal Reservations
• Lake Erie-Canada Corridor, including parts of Lake Erie and Pennsylvania
​
Groups like Payne County SOS – Save Our Sunsets/Stop Massive NIETC Corridor are trying to align with other similar groups across the state who are fighting projects similar to the DOE’s NIETC and Invenergy’s Cimarron Link.
These smaller groups are all part of a movement sweeping across Oklahoma, in part leading with passionate rhetoric that wants to stop wind turbines, solar energy and “green” energy agendas from destroying Oklahoma and a rural way of life.
Starting at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 7, many people from this movement are expected to attend a rally at the Oklahoma State Capitol Rotunda where legislators are expected to be present and tuned in to these topics.
On a flyer published by the Freedom Brigade about the event, the group lists Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Coyle; Rep. Jim Shaw, R-Chandler and Attorney General Gentner Drummond as possible guests. Other legislators expected include: Sen. Warren Hamilton (R-McCurtain); Rep. Neil Hayes (R-Checotah); Rep. Tom Gann (R-Inola) and Rep. Tim Turner (R-Kinta). The News Press has not confirmed with these officials their attendance at this upcoming rally.
The Freedom Brigade on Facebook is group of 81 members self-described as “a non-partisan, conservative effort to fight the wind turbines where we will not be tossed about by the winds of personal egos.”
NeAnne Clinton is from Garfield County and she is fighting a solar farm. She attended one of Payne County’s Board of County Commissioners special meetings on the energy plans where she announced this rally – her name is also on the Freedom Brigade published list of those attending.
It is clear these grassroots protesters are seeing results. The DOE cited the federal cancellations “in response to comments received from the public and its continued analysis of the value of NIETC designation to spur needed transmission investment.”
Suzie Byrd of the Enid News & Eagle, reported on Dec. 26, that attorneys representing Invenergy on the Cimarron Link electrical transmission line project have dropped their legal action against several families in Garfield County, which mostly concerned the project wanting to use the homeowners’ land.
While Parrack does not know how many from Payne County will go from their group on Jan. 7 (they have 1,800 members now – about 1,000 more since the initial News Press reporting on their efforts), she said they will continue “to monitor the federal situation, including advocating for stopping the funding to private, for-profit utility groups; vigorously opposing Cimarron Links and similar projects and advocating for additional state action to protect and preserve landowner property rights.”
News 6 - Tulsa
Q&A: The Cimarron Link Energy Transmission Line, Its Potential Impact On Green Country Counties
The Cimarron Link project, a 375-mile clean energy transmission line by Invenergy, is advancing with over half of the required land secured, aiming for operation by 2028 amid landowner negotiations and federal funding support.