[Virginia] Staff Seeks Delay in Hearing on Proposed Power Line (Washington Post)
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.