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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Winds of Change: Feds Approve Transmission Project for Wind Energy in TN

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Wednesday, March 30, 2016   

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The winds of change are blowing - with the U.S. Department of Energy's approval of the Plains and Eastern Clean Line transmission project. The cross-continental project would deliver energy generated by large wind turbines in western Oklahoma to states such as Tennessee and others in the Southeast.

While the Tennessee Valley Authority has provided energy to the state for generations, John Wilson, director of research for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said this would provide another valuable source.

"This wind would be very different from the wind that TVA currently has in Tennessee," he said. "It blows year-round. It's very reliable, particularly during winter peaks."

With the DOE's approval of the project, it could begin construction later this year and deliver up to 4,000 megawatts of wind power to the South. The group behind the effort, Clean Line Energy Partners, now will have to reach agreements with existing energy providers involved, including TVA.

The DOE's review and approval is five years in the making. Currently, the United States utilizes a small fraction of its wind-energy potential, but that could change with this project, Wilson said.

"It's a visionary project," he said. "It will deliver power very cheaply to the Southeast. Deals are being struck right now that are cheaper than the cost to run a natural-gas power plant, so we're basically talking about cost savings virtually from day one compared to the cost of fuel and maintaining an existing power plant."

According to the American Wind Energy Association, wind energy powers 18 million homes in America and the industry supports 73,000 wind-related jobs in the United States.

The DOE approval is online at energy.gov.


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