The new deadline is Monday, December 10.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter recently announced that the Department of Defense (DOD) and NextEra Energy have again extended the deadline to reach a mitigation plan on a wind farm along a route of airspace the military uses for training. As part of the agreed upon extension,
NextEra may proceed with construction on turbines that have been approved by the FAA.
Construction on the company’s wind farm west of Hinton was stopped in October after NextEra and the Oklahoma Strategic Military Planning Commission (OSMPC) agreed to work on a mitigation plan with the DOD to resolve the issue. NextEra had initially been authorized to proceed with construction on turbines that have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
However, the OSMPC contended that the wind farm violates a recent amendment to the Wind Energy Development Act.
The changes to the law require a determination by the federal government that planned wind-turbine construction has no military impact, or the company must have an approved mitigation plan from the DOD, before a wind farm is constructed or expanded. The attorney general is representing the OSMPC in the negotiations.
The new deadline for the mitigation plan is December 10. The previous deadline was November 12, following another extension of October 29.
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