Dive Brief:
- Oil company Newfield Exploration Mid-Continent is suing a clean energy developer over an Oklahoma wind project, saying they did not provide sufficient notice that construction on the 300-MW project was beginning.
- Newfield owns dozens of oil wells across the 315 square mile area of the Kingfisher Wind project in Oklahoma, developed by Apex Clean Energy. The oil company sought an emergency stop to construction on Friday while the companies try to come to an agreement.
Dive Insight:
The Daiky Oklahoman reports that Newfield Exploration has sued Apex Clean Energy for failing to give sufficient notice regarding construction of a wind energy project being developed in northern Canadian County and southern Kingfisher County in Oklahoma.
According to Newfield's lawsuit, the company only received detailed plans regarding the wind facility three days before the project was scheduled to break ground.
"It is impossible for oil and gas operators to discern where, specifically, each component of the facility will be located relative to roads or other infrastructure present on the surface of the lands," Newfield wrote in its lawsuit..
The Kingfisher Wind facility will be capable of producing enough to power about 100,000 homes. Apex said the the project is expected to be built in rural, open, unincorporated areas, in areas where landowners wish to host turbines on their private property. Apex said it expects to invest more than $452 million of private capital to build Kingfisher Wind.
The company said the project will bring in an estimated $1.5 million per year in new tax revenues for Canadian and Kingfisher counties, local schools, and county services. And estimated $30.8 million in new tax revenues will flow to local school districts
The renewable energy credits from the facility are being sold to other parties.
