Capon Valley Coalition

Bill Golemon, our CVC Chairman, passed on this urgent call to action from our allies across the state line in Virginia, the Piedmont Environmental Council:

Please call Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd next week and ask them to sign onto a letter requesting oversight hearings on National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designation (the letter is attached). The Department of Energy has designated 42 of 55 counties in West Virginia as part of the Mid-Atlantic NIETC.

Within this area, an interstate transmission line applicant has access to federal eminent domain to site the line. NIETC could be used to site the TrAILCo/Dominion transmission line in West Virginia.

Please ask your Senators to join Senators Casey, Whitehouse and Biden in asking the Energy & Natural Resources Committee to hold hearings on this flawed policy.

Senator Rockefeller’s DC office: (202)224-6472

Senator Byrd’s DC office: (202)224-3954

For more information, please contact Liese Dart at (202)857-6982 or by email at ldart@pecva.org.

What is NIETC Designation?

Sec. 1221 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act provided the Department of Energy the discretion to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC) in areas of the United States that are found to be electrically congested. If a project lies within an NIETC, a utility may appeal an unfavorable state decision to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for use of federal eminent domain to site the project.

Despite receiving over 2,000 comments against the designations, the Department of Energy designated two corridors on October 5, 2007. The first NIETC’s encompass portions of 10 states, 220 counties and impact more than 72 million people.

The Department of Energy failed to conduct an alternatives analysis or to consult with the affected states prior to these designations, both requirements of Sec. 1221. Although this policy could be used to provide long distance transmission access to our nation’s developing wind and solar facilities, the Department of Energy has not designated areas of the country that are identified as having significant renewable resources.

The Mid-Atlantic NIETC designation will increase transmission infrastructure to coal-fired generation built prior to the 1972 Clean Air Act, facilities that lie outside of the EPA’s non-attainment area for air quality. These investments in unnecessary interstate transmission will make cleaner alternatives such as efficiency and demand response technologies less economically viable.

Eight of the ten states in the first NIETC designations have filed Petitions for Rehearing against the Department of Energy’s final decision.

Map of Mid-Atlantic NIETC area

The Washington Post ran this story on the front page today about the Washington area’s growing hunger for electricty … and the region’s expectation that the power will come from somewhere else.

Electric power has already become painfully expensive in Washington and its suburbs. Now, local utilities say, it could become something even worse: scarce.

With its humming data centers and air-conditioned mansions, the region is using 18 percent more electricity than in 2001. And as demand has gone up, so have prices. Some homeowners have seen their rates jump by half or more.

Utility and government officials say the region has to face the idea that its demand for electricity could overtake the supply. In a little more than three years, they say, lights could flicker off in rolling blackouts.

To avert such shortages, electric companies have proposed a transmission line through the Loudoun countryside, a third nuclear reactor in Calvert County and other controversial projects. Even if the projects are built, they won’t come online for years. Environmentalists say the region could solve many of its problems simply by conserving energy.

This year, leaders in Maryland, Virginia and the District will all face crucial decisions affecting the power supply. The main question: Given that Washington loves electric power as much as other types of power, could the region make do with less of it?

The can read the entire story at WashingtonPost.com.

Here are links to the last three days of hearings on the Allegheny Power TrAIL power line:

Day 8 — Jan .17

Day 9 — Jan .18

Day 10 — Jan. 19