Capon Valley Coalition

From today’s edition of West Virginia University’s The Daily Athenaeum:

Residents complained that their land would be ruined, their property devalued, their children imperiled and said they might leave their homes if Allegheny Power is allowed to go ahead with a transmission line that would cut through 114 miles of northern West Virginia and be put in place 140 feet towers.

At a forum in front of representatives of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, Allegheny Power and the state Consumer Advocate Division in the Erickson Alumni Center on Tuesday night, the crowd was almost unanimously opposed to or concerned about the line, which is up for the PSC’s approval in January.

Allegheny has said the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, or TrAIL, is necessary by 2011, or else the existing transmission system will overload, said Allen Staggers, a spokesman for the utility, in a previous interview with The Daily Athenaeum.

In 2003, there was a massive blackout on the East Coast when the electric grid became too strained and shut down. Over 50 million people lost power.

Things like this will become more common, advocates of the line said, if something is not done.

But residents at Tuesday’s meeting said they have everything to lose and nothing to gain from the lines.

Don Corwin, a resident of Halleck, a community in Monongalia County, said this state’s energy future is secure for now. West Virginia exports over 70 percent of the electricity it produces. He said the real winners are residents in other states that will receive our power inexpensively and at state residents’ expense.

The line “does not benefit us, and they want us to pay for it,” he said.

Customers in West Virginia would pay at least $2 a month more in their bills toward the cost of the line, which is to cost more than a billion dollars, only to “subsidize rates in New Jersey and Maryland,” Corwin said.

“How can Trans-Allegheny keep telling the public this project is about ‘keeping the lights on’ when they know it’s not?”

The route for the line and the design was a result of “shoddy research and poor technical worker,” Corwin, who spent several years in the energy industry, said.

State senators Mike Oliverio and Jon Blair Hunter, who both represent parts of Monongalia County, said they had received more letters, e-mails and calls about the line than any other issue during their time in the statehouse.

Oliverio said the “concerns are wide-ranging” and include air pollution, who will bear the cost of the line’s construction, and people’s access and enjoyment to their property.

“The bulk of the line goes right through my senatorial district,” Hunter said. “I do object to the building of this line.”

The added air pollution that would come from the power plants necessary to put energy into the line “is a big mistake,” he said.

He suggested the plants and line should be built closer to where the power they would produce and carry is needed.

“If we have to have more power in the East, let’s build the plant in the East,” Hunter said.

Other objections were more personal.

Brian Shriver, who recently got back from tours overseas in Iraq and as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, said, “I never thought I would come home and be forced out of my own home.”

He said the line “does nothing for the hard-working people who will lose everything they worked for.”

Another resident, Steve Giessler, found his farm 10 years ago after spending a year looking for the right spot. He found it, a 26-acre farm with a meadow at the top. He called it “The Sound of Music Meadow,” because he remembers his wife once dancing in the field.

If the TrAIL goes ahead, Giessler said he, his wife and their four children would probably move away.

“You may think those are sappy, sentimental things, but these are real issues,” he said.

Giessler, like others, complained that the money he would receive for the land, which might be seized under eminent domain if TrAIL is approved, would not be its true value because it does not consider the value his children might find in the property 10, 20 or 50 years from now.

Others complained that Allegheny acted like the plan was a done deal, and approval was “just a formality.”

Susan Olcott, who studies wildlife, said her land, like others’ land, had been flown over by helicopters apparently inspecting the area in preparation for building the line.

She said they flew about 20 feet above the treeline on her property, twice in a single day, with cameras aimed at the property.

Others complained of similar encounters and said they have been intimidated by representatives of the company. They said the representatives put pressure on them to sell their land or, without asking permission, told owners they were coming onto the property to survey.

Mike Caputo of the State House of Delegates said, “No company, no power company, no major company, has the right to come into a community and ride rough shod over the people living in that community.”

He suggested Allegheny consider building the line along existing routes or along “the least intrusive route” through the state.

Last night’s meeting was the second of the day and part of a string of forums that are meant to provide the state PSC with input that will help in its recommendation.

During the first hour and a half of last night’s meeting, only one person stood up and roundly supported the line.

“We need to maintain the infrastructure of the United States to remain competitive,” said Don Cunningham, who works at an engineering and construction company.

The PSC’s first evidentiary hearing begins in January 2008, and a decision is expected by May.

A member of the commission’s staff told the crowd that they were charged with investigating the siting, need, reliability, economic interest and statutory implications of the line.

“The commission itself has not made any decision,” she said.

CVC Chairman Bill Golemon writes:

As a reminder, the WV PSC Public Comment Hearings will take place at the following locations:

1. On Oct. 29, 2007 at 1:30 PM and AGAIN at 6:30 PM in the Spruce Room, Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center, Route 32 North, Canaan Valley, Davis, WV.

2. On Oct. 30, 2007 at 1:30 PM and AGAIN at 6:30 PM in the Conference room, South Branch Inn, 1500 US Route 220 North, Moorefield, WV.

3. On Nov 28 and 29, beginning at 9:30 AM on both days, in the HMC Hearing Room, PSC Building, 201 Brooks ST.; Charleston, WV.

Please come and speak at one, some or all of these public hearings. Spread the word. You don’t have to be an energy expert, understand electricity,have the power line cross your property or be in close proximity to your property to speak.

It doesn’t have to be a long prepared speech. It can be so simple as, “I am a resident of WV. I am a rate payer. I oppose this power line”. Say what you want.

Or if you don’t want to see your viewshed obscured by monster towers, you can say something like, ” I am a resident of WV. I oppose the negative environmental impact this power line will have on my state”. Again say what you want.

These are only examples to show you how simple it can be if anyone is intimidated by public speaking. Your comment will become part of the public record. At the end of the day, your voice will be counted as either in the “support” or “oppose” category.

Associated Press reports in today’s Washington Post:

Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) vowed yesterday to block the renomination of a government energy board’s chief until the Bush administration scales back its push for new high-voltage power lines in his state.

Casey took to the Senate floor to declare that he would put a hold on the renomination of Joseph T. Kelliher as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He denounced the boundaries of a “national interest electric transmission corridor” to promote the construction of new power lines in the Mid-Atlantic states.

The corridor, finalized earlier this month, includes most of Pennsylvania as it stretches from Virginia north to Upstate New York. It marks the first time the government has used new powers granted under an energy bill passed in 2005.