Capon Valley Coalition

July was a busy month for everyone working on the Capon Valley Coalition. We are trying to catch up now.

The Washington Post reported on July 27:

Supporters Say Project Is Vital to Success Of Area Economy; Foes Question Its Need

Heated testimony at a hearing yesterday about a proposed 65-mile high-voltage power line through Northern Virginia provided a hint of the friction associated with the project and the tension ahead as the state begins deciding whether to approve it.

Many people waited all afternoon at Fauquier High School in Warrenton for the chance to address a State Corporation Commission hearing examiner, who will play a key role in deciding whether the 500 kilovolt line proposed by Dominion Virginia Power and Allegheny Power should be built.

Although organized opposition to the project has been fierce and many speakers condemned it, a parade of business owners and representatives from Northern Virginia chambers of commerce endorsed it, saying the area’s economy will depend on a reliable flow of electricity.

“The success of the high-tech-driven economy in Fairfax County and the rest of Northern Virginia” depends on maintaining the infrastructure, said William D. Lecos, president and chief executive of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, reading from a statement. “Without it, the economy of Northern Virginia cannot thrive.”

But William Arrington, whose southern Fauquier County farm could be sliced by the line, said that if Fairfax needs power, that’s Fairfax’s problem “because that’s where the over-development has been allowed to run rampant.”

The hearing was the first of eight scheduled this summer about the transmission line, which is planned for parts of Frederick, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper and Prince William counties before ending at a substation in Loudoun County. Without it, the region might face rolling blackouts within five years, Dominion officials have said.

Since announcing the project last summer, Dominion has encountered well-organized, sometimes emotional opposition from landowners, conservationists and others who say the line would scar the landscape and encourage the construction of polluting coal plants. The company revised the line’s route to avoid environmentally and historically significant areas, and the opposition has persisted.

Led by the slow-growth Piedmont Environmental Council, critics have promised to convince the state that the project is not needed for Northern Virginia. The Warrenton-based organization has raised about $1 million to fight the project, organizing rallies and commissioning studies that emphasize alternatives such as conservation.

This month, Dominion has stepped up its efforts to convince residents that the line is essential for the health of Northern Virginia’s electrical grid and that no alternative will suffice.

Dominion commissioned and is heavily promoting an April study by KEMA, a Massachusetts engineering firm, that shows “there will be significant problems in the system that will require new transmission facilities by 2011.”

A full-page newspaper ad by Dominion this week said, “Without a new transmission line, Northern Virginians will need to reduce electrical use by 40%.” And the company has been reaching out to business owners who support the line, asking them to speak out at hearings that are expected to be dominated by the line’s critics.

Six more meetings will take place next month — in Bristow, Winchester and Front Royal. The commission will spend the fall studying the issue and will reconvene in January to hear arguments from attorneys for the different sides. If the commission approves the project, Dominion officials hope to have it built by 2011.