Capon Valley Coalition

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review today:

Allegheny Energy Inc. is offering $20,000 to $100,000 to some property owners for a right-of-way to build a power transmission line — a gesture some current owners call “ridiculous.”

That’s because some property owners were paid for the rights-of-way 30 years ago by Allegheny Energy’s predecessors. This new round of compensation is associated with the company’s proposed $1.3 billion Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line through Washington and Greene counties.

“We are offering additional compensation to property owners where we already have easements because we feel it’s the right thing to do,” said Allegheny Energy spokesman David Neurohr this week. He said a “couple dozen” letters were sent.

Organized opposition to the proposed 240-mile transmission line erupted as soon as Allegheny Energy announced its intentions 18 months ago.

The Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania, with hundreds of volunteer members, along with county, state and federal politicians, have voiced opposition. State Public Utility Commission public hearings have been packed with placard-carrying protesters. The final hearings are scheduled for 1 and 7 p.m. today at the Washington County Fair & Expo Center.

“They (Allegheny Energy) may think this is a good PR move, but most of my clients have rejected the offer,” said attorney Richard DiSalle, a former Washington County, Commonwealth Court and Superior Court judge who represents more than 100 property owners.

“We see this as an indication that perhaps Allegheny Energy doesn’t have all the rights-of-way they say they have; some question whether they abandoned rights-of-way,” said DiSalle, with the law firm Rose, Schmidt, Hasley & DiSalle, Downtown.

The Greensburg-based energy company has said it already controls about 90 percent of the right-of-way for the project. It’s negotiating with 600 to 650 property owners of 250 to 275 pieces of property within 500 feet of the proposed power line.

Neurohr said a number of landowners were contacted by company representatives, and Allegheny Energy has received positive responses to the offers.

Greene County Commissioner Pam Snyder and her husband, Jack, were offered $20,365 for the 200-foot-wide easement that skirts more than 30 acres of their farm in Jefferson. The 55-acre farm has been in the Snyder family for about 90 years.

“The letter makes it sound like we talked with these people — we never talked with anyone — that’s why the letter is so ridiculous,” Pam Snyder said. “My husband farms this property, we board horses, so this project would have a huge impact on our agricultural income.”

Allegheny Energy’s letter offers 10 percent of the total paid upon signing. The remainder would be delivered once regulators approve the project.

Property owners can keep the up-front money whether or not the project wins approvals. Allegheny Energy agrees to repair all damages to fences and crops, and other property damage resulting from construction.

Real estate experts said Allegheny Energy is under no legal mandate to offer additional money for something it already owns — provided the easements were properly recorded.

“Other than for public relations purposes, there really is no other reason for doing what they’re doing,” said John Richards III, a partner with the law firm Richards & Richards, Warrendale. “Other than the PR, this really isn’t a good idea because now other property owners can say, ‘What about me?’”

“If they have a good easement, properly created and properly recorded and it will be used for the original purpose it was created for, it could be executed in 1850, 1950 or 2007, it’s still valid,” said attorney Joseph Huber, counsel for Chicago Title Co.

Offers are in the $20,000 to $100,000 range based on the amount paid for the easement years ago, and the land’s present market value, according to the company.

Attorney Richards said property owners have little recourse to fight easements.

“I’m assuming they all got title insurance on the property, but like most people they probably got the policy and immediately threw it in a drawer without looking at it,” Richards said. “Had they read it, they would have seen the easement information. Ignorance in this case isn’t a good defense.”

The project would stretch from Southwestern Pennsylvania through West Virginia before ending in Loudoun County, Va., outside Washington, and link with Dominion Virginia Power.

In Pennsylvania, Allegheny Energy would construct a 37-mile, 500,000-volt line from a new substation in Dunkard in Greene County, to a new substation in North Strabane in Washington County. Three smaller, 138,000-volt lines totaling 15 miles in length would be constructed to connect with existing lines.

The project is slated for completion by 2011.

The Washington Post reports today on efforts to slow down the rush to build Allegheny Power’s TrAIL power transmission line through Virginia and West Virginia.

Virginia utility regulators have asked for more time to study whether Dominion Virginia Power should be allowed to build a high-voltage power line through a 65-mile stretch of rural Northern Virginia.

The staff of the State Corporation Commission has asked the commission, which approves power lines, to postpone arguments scheduled for Jan. 14.

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Dominion’s application is “voluminous” and “both complex and novel,” according to a four-page staff request released Wednesday. The staff asked that the Richmond hearing be delayed until Feb. 25.

In addition, staff members said they want additional time to consider whether a high-voltage line proposed for Maryland would affect whether the Virginia power line is needed.

Dominion, which contends that the Virginia line is needed to guard against blackouts, is reviewing the commission staff request, a spokeswoman said. If the commission delays the project for more than a year, the company might be allowed to bypass the state and appeal directly to the federal government under a new federal law.

The Piedmont Environmental Council, a nonprofit organization that is leading opposition to the line, said it is pleased with the staff’s request.

“They recognize it’s not as simple as the scare tactics of, ‘Your lights are going to go out if you don’t get this line,’ ” council spokesman Robert W. Lazaro Jr. said. “It is very significant.”

The 270-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line, a joint project of Dominion and Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Power, would carry electricity from coal-fired plants in the Midwest to fast-growing Northern Virginia.

Dominion would be in charge of the eastern part of the line, which would begin in Frederick, Va., and end in Loudoun County, slicing through parts of Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Warren and Prince William counties. The estimated cost of that portion of the line is $243 million.

The other project the commission staff wants to study is a $1.8 billion, 300-mile high-voltage line proposed by Allegheny and American Electric Power. It would start in West Virginia and end in Frederick County, close to the Montgomery County border.

Both proposals have provoked an outcry from preservationists and landowners, who worry that the cables and lofty steel towers will mar the landscape and bring down property values.

In addition, the environmental council has argued that Virginia does not need the Dominion line.

On Monday, the organization published a report that says Dominion and Allegheny misrepresented the data to prop up the case for the line and that they ignored “less costly and less environmentally damaging solutions.”

In April, Dominion released a report that warned of “significant problems in the system that will require new transmission facilities by 2011.”

This week, the utility company announced energy conservation initiatives to help meet the growing demand for electricity in Virginia.

A hearing examiner for the State Corporation Commission is to decide this fall whether to delay arguments in the case. If the examiner agrees to a delay, anyone who wants to testify Jan. 14 would be allowed to do so.