Power line plan takes pounding in Grafton (Dominion Post)
The Dominion Post in Morgantown, WV, reported on Oct. 25:
GRAFTON — Ralph “Butch” Neal did not intend to speak at either of two hearings held Wednesday about the proposed power line that could be crossing six counties.
However, a few minutes into the first hearing, Neal decided to speak his mind.
“Allegheny will run roughshod over us hillbillies if we let them,” he said. “We need to stand up to them.”
Public Service Commission Judge John Carter, who presided over the hearings, told each crowd of about 75 people assembled in the Taylor County Senior Citizens Center that the PSC will take these comments into consideration when it makes its decision about the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line project. The Trans Allegheny Interstate Line Co. (TrAILCo) is managing the project for Allegheny Energy.
If the PSC approves TrAILCo’s application, it would allow Allegheny Energy to build a 240-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line from West Virginia into Virginia. Allegheny’s project is part of the line that would start in Pennsylvania, pass through West Virginia and continue to northern Virginia. In West Virginia, the line would run through Monongalia, Preston, Tucker, Grant, Hardy and Hampshire counties.
“The straightest route for this power line is through Maryland, not West Virginia,” said Richard Rhodes, of Tunnelton. “The route they want just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
Allegheny officials were present at the hearings, but didn’t say anything. Allen Staggers, an Allegheny spokesman, told The Dominion Post one of the routes that Allegheny studied did go through Maryland, but the line routing evaluation favored the route that goes west and south of Morgantown, thereby bypassing Maryland.
“The route was determined based on an evaluation of all the impacts that each route had,” he said. “The one that was ultimately selected and applied for was the route with the least impact on the environment and the number of homes affected.”
There are two routes the PSC is considering for the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line project. One segment of Allegheny’s preferred route has the line crossing Monongalia and Preston counties and bypassing Taylor County. The alternative route starts in Monongalia County, then crosses into Marion and Taylor counties.
“We did a study for the alternate route, but based on that study, the preferred route affects less homes and fewer properties,” Staggers said. “Ultimately though, the decision about which route will be made by the Public Service Commission.”
Sterl Dean, of Elkins, supports the project.
“I look at the electric grid system as being the same as the national interstate system,” he said. “Instead of vehicles, kilowatt hours flow over the electrical lines. Instead of trailers and cars, we are transporting electricity by these lines to houses, factories, schools and hospitals.”
John Whitescarver, of Pruntytown, said the PSC should be concerned about local needs.
“You should consider the needs of the people in this state, not the millions living elsewhere,” he said.
PJM Interconnection — the regional power grid operator — and Allegheny officials have said the additional power line will strengthen the regional power grid. West Virginia and other states in the region could see blackouts and brownouts as early as 2011 if the line is not built.
Bob Shaffer, of Tunnelton, said Allegheny will raise rates in West Virginia to help pay for a power line project it doesn’t need because of all the excess generating capacity.
“They have an open checkbook for this, and we are going to have to pay for it,” he said.
Staggers told The Dominion Post that based on the latest cost estimates from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which sets the rates, the average residential customer will pay about 90 cents more per month.
“West Virginia customers are only paying a small portion of the cost of the project,” Staggers said. “Customers in other states are paying more for the project because they use more electricity.”
Alison Hanham is a community development senior program administrator at WVU. She said the power line will harm the communities it passes through.
“The TrAIL project has been framed as an opportunity for Allegheny Energy to be the ‘good guy’ coming to the rescue, responding to the pressing needs for energy in the entire mid-Atlantic region,” she said. “In this way, commercial interests are being prioritized over local concerns. Yet this project will be executed at the local level and will have serious local social and economic impacts.”
Staggers said people have been able to adjust to living around power lines in the past.
“These lines will have an impact,” he said. “But people drive by them every day because they are already part of landscape and our communities.”