Oklahomans – and Texans – who relish the Kiamichi River and its environs will be in suspense for several years before learning whether a company based in Dallas will be allowed to build a hydroelectric plant on the river to generate power for Texas.
It may be two more years before the Southeast Oklahoma Power Corporation (SEOPC) files its final license application for a proposed hydroelectric power plant. And the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may not reach a final decision on that application until three or four years later, an agency official indicated.
Before FERC “can make an informed decision on a license application,” the agency “must obtain adequate information on all aspects of the project,” said Celeste Miller, FERC media relations officer.
The application process began May 7 when SEOPC filed a Notice of Intent / Pre-application Document announcing their plans to construct a $3 billion hydropower plant on the Kiamichi River in Pushmataha County approximately five miles south of Talihina.
That was followed by a “scoping” document FERC issued on July 8. Scoping is “a process of identifying the potential impacts of a project on the environment and the community,” said Christine Sillett, a FERC wildlife biologist who is the agency’s coordinator for SEOPC’s proposed Pushmataha County closed-loop pumped storage project on the Kiamichi River.
Comments and study requests from all “stakeholders” – who include residents of Pushmataha, Mc-Curtain and other counties in southeastern Oklahoma – are due by Nov. 5, FERC’s revised process plan and schedule reflects.
More than 525 comments and several requests for pertinent studies were filed with FERC by Sept. 20. Almost three dozen comments – all in opposition to the hydropower project – were filed in the first five days of this month.
The next deadline is Dec. 20, the date by which FERC will issue a second scoping document (if necessary), Sillett reported.
Dec. 20 is also the date by which SEOPC and its president, Johann (Yau On) Tse, are to file a proposed study plan. That data includes “effects on fish and wildlife, cultural, recreational, and tribal resources,” Miller related. “To obtain this information, if it does not already exist, the applicant typically conducts studies.”
A study plan meeting for project stakeholders is to be held on Jan. 19, 2025, and stakeholder comments about SEOPC’s study plan will be due by March 20, 2025.
SEOPC is scheduled to file a revised study plan by April 19, 2025, and stakeholder comments about the revised study plan are due by May 4, 2025.
SEOPC’s first “study season” is scheduled for the spring and summer of 2025, and the company’s initial study report is due on May 19, 2026. An initial study report meeting for all stakeholders is booked for June 3, 2026, and SEOPC is expected to deliver a summary of the initial study report meeting on June 18, 2026.
According to FERC’s “pre-filing milestone” document:
• A second “study season” for SEOPC is scheduled for spring and summer 2026.
• An updated study report from SEOPC will be due by May 19, 2027.
• A meeting for all stakeholders to review SEOPC’s updated report is scheduled for June 3, 2027.
• SEOPC’s preliminary licensing proposal is slated to be filed on June 4, 2027.
• SEOPC’s summary of the updated study report meeting is to be prepared by June 18, 2027.
• Stakeholder comments about SEOPC’s preliminary licensing proposal must be submitted by Sept. 2, 2027.
• SEOPC’s final license application is expected to be filed by Oct. 18, 2027.
FERC added a caveat: If a second study season is not needed, SEOPC may file its preliminary licensing proposal sooner. However, the preliminary licensing proposal “would need to be filed at least 150 days prior to filing the final license application.”
“Once the final application is filed, that will begin the post-filing activity,” and a commission decision on the application “does not occur until the end of the post-filing process,” Miller said.
“The decision on licensing [of the SEOPC project] would be in five to six years at the earliest,” Stephen Bowler, chief of the South Branch in FERC’s Hydropower Licensing Division, said during an Aug. 15 virtual meeting about the Kiamichi River project.