Capon Valley Coalition

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Saturday on hearings about Allegheny Power’s TrAIL plan that will start on Monday:

Forces that have debated the merits for nearly two years of Allegheny Energy Inc.’s 240-mile, $1.2 billion power transmission line proposed for Southwestern Pennsylvania and two other states are set for three weeks of high-voltage testimony.

On Monday, the state Public Utility Commission is scheduled to begin all-day, evidentiary hearings on the proposal at the state office building, 300 Liberty Ave., Downtown.

Administrative Law Judges Michael A. Nemec and Mark Hoyer have been assigned to hear detailed, in many cases highly technical, testimony for and against the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, known by the acronym TrAIL.

“This evidentiary hearing will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the careful evaluation undertaken to address reliability issues in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” said David E. Flitman, president of Allegheny Power, the power transmission-distribution unit of Greensburg-based Allegheny Power Inc.

The Trans-Allegheny project includes one primary 500-kilovolt line stretching from near Eighty Four, Washington County, into West Virginia, then east to Loudoun County, Va., about 35 miles west of Washington, D.C.

In addition, three smaller 138-kilovolt lines are in the Pennsylvania portion of the project.

Allegheny Energy’s share of the total bill is about $850 million.

“We believe the reliability issues that Allegheny Energy says are the reasons for building the project are not supported in the data,” said Willard Burns, an attorney in the Pittsburgh office of Pepper Hamilton LLP, which represents the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania in fighting the project.

Allegheny Energy contends that except for a 1.2-mile section of the line from the so-called 502 Junction power substation to the West Virginia border, the project within Pennsylvania addresses local electricity reliability needs.

Not everyone agrees with the company’s appraisal.

“We believe that the 500-kilovolt line through Washington and Greene counties isn’t necessary,” said Irwin “Sonny” Popowsky, the state’s consumer advocate. “Our expert witness believes that construction of smaller transmission lines on existing company rights-of-way would be less costly and cause less environmental impact.”

Public Utility Commission Office of Trial Staff analyst Gary Yocca previously testified he doesn’t believe Allegheny Energy has satisfied all applicable statutes and regulations regarding the new transmission line.

Attorney Burns said the PUC’s administrative law judges will make their recommendations on the project to the full commission sometime in June, with PUC decision to come later this year.

The Trans-Allegheny hearings come days after the U.S. Department Energy announced it wouldn’t hold additional hearings concerning its National Electric Transmission Corridor report and order.

The corridors are areas of the country the Energy Department determined as experiencing power transmission congestion, and which offer a wide variety of potential sources of electric generation.

The order forming the corridors was announced last year and immediately was criticized by a variety of politicians, including Gov. Ed Rendell, landowners and environmentalists as overly broad, including huge geographic areas in the Northeast and Southwest.

The Northeast corridor, for example, includes 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, with Allegheny Energy’s proposed Trans-Allegheny project included within the corridor’s boundaries.

Rick Stouffer can be reached at rstouffer@tribweb.com or 412-320-7853.

The Dominion Post ran this guest commentary on Sunday, March 9.

BY DON CORWIN

Joseph Goebbels, leader of the propaganda campaign for Nazi Germany, once said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Apparently, this is the hope of Allegheny Energy, as it continues to spew propaganda about the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, or TrAIL.

In recent weeks, Allegheny has flooded the air waves and print media with warm and fuzzy ads about how TrAIL will be a bonanza for West Virginia — producing jobs, providing reliable power and helping our economy. Allegheny and its minions have threatened us with power outages and shortages if this project is not approved. Thankfully, West Virginians aren’t drinking the Kool-Aid.

An executive from Allegheny Power recently penned an opinion (DP Feb. Feb. 10) extolling the virtues of TrAIL. He conveniently failed to mention some important facts.West Virginia jobs? Not so much. More than 90 percent of this project would be designed, built and managed outside West Virginia.

Furthermore, if TrAIL is approved, Allegheny would use eminent domain to force property owners on the TrAIL to sell their property. Did I forget to mention the biggest benefit of all? Millions of dollars in profit for Allegheny’s executives as they cash in on stock options made off the backs of state landowners and customers.

The primary objective of this power line, other than fattening the wallets of Allegheny’s executives, is to provide cheap, West Virginia power to Virginia and New Jersey. These states have no intention of building their own power plants and welcome the idea of having West Virginians breathe dirty air and pay bigger electric bills so they can heat their indoor swimming pools.

Evidentiary hearings for TrAIL were recently held before the state Public Service Commission in Charleston. The results of these hearings showed overwhelmingly that TrAIL is a bad deal for the people of West Virginia.

Some of the most important findings to come out of these hearings were:

The shortest and best route for TrAIL was through Pennsylvania and Maryland, yet Allegheny chose West Virginia because it perceived our state and its people as easier targets for forced seizure of private property.

This power line project does not strengthen the power grid in West Virginia, and any future power congestion can be easily eliminated through minor fixes in the existing power lines.

Allegheny’s application was woefully inadequate in identifying the impact on homeowners near the line route and ignored the economic and environmental impact of a 500-kilovolt power line that passes through the heart of northern West Virginia.

The evidence so clearly demonstrated that TrAIL is bad business for West Virginia that the PSC legal staff, engineering staff and its paid consultant all recommended against approval of TrAIL. The decision is now up to the commissioners. The evidence, the PSC staff recommendations and the overwhelming opposition from the public and businesses seem to point to a favorable outcome for the people of West Virginia. However, we are acutely aware that nothing can be taken for granted due to the power of lobbyists, possible backdoor deals and the lack of transparency in our state agencies.

As we await the decision of the commissioners, Allegheny’s propaganda campaign will likely continue. Like the coal and timber barons who came before them, Allegheny’s executives always believed they could pull the wool over the eyes of West Virginians.

Let’s hope that this time, the interests of West Virginians will come first and truth will prevail over propaganda.

DON CORWIN is president of the Halleck Community Association and a resident of the Halleck Road community. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.

From today’s editions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Law allows agency to dictate placement of power lines

Opponents of a high-voltage power line project in Washington and Greene counties have received encouraging news.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said it would hold hearings to review how the U.S. Department of Energy is implementing its controversial transmission corridor program.

The program allows the federal government to overrule state decisions about placement of electric transmission lines. It allows property to be taken for the lines using eminent domain, and has faced harsh criticism in recent months.

Also new on the power line front, the state Public Utility Commission will begin evidentiary hearings March 24 on the application of Greensburg-based Allegheny Power to build the Pennsylvania portion of a proposed 240-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line. The line would extend from Washington and Greene counties in Pennsylvania to existing substations in West Virginia and end in northern Virginia.

Allegheny’s 210-mile portion of the line would cost $820 million to build, with the total project estimated at more than $1 billion. The smaller portion of the line would be constructed and paid for by Dominion Virginia Power, which serves customers in Virginia.

Allegheny Power, calling the project the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Project, or TrAIL, has already provided the PUC with testimony from 19 witnesses, while a local opposition group, the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania, has responded with three experts.

The company is facing challenges from more than just local groups, though.

Company testimony regarding the need for the power line so far has been rebutted by two witnesses for the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate, and from a supervisor from the PUC Office of Trial Staff, who called the application “premature at best.”

PUC Supervisor Gary Yocca questioned Allegheny Power’s application after analysis, testifying that the company had not yet done enough to merit approval of the application.

Mr. Yocca said that while the company says the new power line is needed to address anticipated local system failures and brownouts within the next several years, he questioned whether there could be less costly and intrusive methods.

He said the company failed to follow through on an assessment of the environmental impact of the project and apparently no federal or state agency examined the project. Mr. Yocca said there are questions about the effects on farmland, forest land, plants and wildlife, and the significance for historic and archaeological sites.
Other consequences loom

And, while he took note of local residents’ objections to the scenic dilemma presented by high-voltage transmission towers, Mr. Yocca warned of far more serious consequences.

In his testimony, Mr. Yocca reminded PUC board members of the longwall coal mining operations peppering Washington and Greene counties and of the susceptible limestone ground structure.

He said the 125-foot to 150-foot transmission towers could be affected by future mining operations or mine subsidence.

“If subsidence occurs under a [high voltage transmission line] tower, the results could be catastrophic,” he said.

Allegheny Energy spokesman David Neurohr said the company will address rebuttal testimony from the PUC and other sources during the evidentiary hearings.

“That will be the process,” he said. “That is what they are for.”

Will Burns, a lawyer with the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania, said his group is gearing up for the fight against the power company and said he appreciates the work by Pennsylvania’s state and national legislative delegations.

He said the decision by the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to hold hearings “was indicative of how important Pennsylvania legislators think this is.”

A team of 38 Democratic state legislators, led by state House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, recently urged the Senate committee to investigate the implementation of a provision in the Energy Act of 2005 that gives the federal government jurisdiction over what has traditionally been state land-use decisions.

Mr. DeWeese’s letter to the committee came on the heels of one sent by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey earlier last month.

Energy law at issue

Pennsylvania, along with a number of states, has objected to the Department of Energy designating a large swath of the Northeast and parts of the Southwest as a national interest electric transmission corridor — or NIETC.

The Mid-Atlantic designation in the Northeast, which encompasses eight states, the District of Columbia, and 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, means the federal government will have the right to overrule state decisions involving the location of electric transmission lines and to take private property through eminent domain for such projects.

If a state denies a construction permit to a power company, makes no decision within a year, or places too many restrictions on the company, it would have the right to seek a permit from the federal government if the project is within a NIETC.

Already, Southern California Edison has asked federal regulators to approve the siting of a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line through Arizona after that state denied approval last year, saying it didn’t want to be an “extension cord for California.”

Late last month, a vice president for Dominion Virginia Power testified that the company would not rule out seeking federal intervention if state approval is denied.

Mr. Casey has become the national voice against the large regional corridors, which critics say defy the intent of the law — to address electric reliability and congestion after the 2003 blackout in the northeast U.S.

Senators, governors and others have proposed that the corridors be of reasonable size and include critically congested areas in need of transmission and new generation. Local groups have expressed concern that Western Pennsylvania’s relatively cheap coal-fired electricity will be shipped to the power-starved East Coast.

Senate to air concerns

Mr. Casey and other legislators have tried obstructing and amending the law to no avail. Mr. Casey even threatened to delay the renomination of Joseph Kelliher, Federal Energy Regulatory Committee chairman, to block implementation of the NIETC.

The most serious concerns raised by officials include the failure by the DOE to consult with states before the final NIETC designation and to assess transmission needs and alternatives.

Another major concern was the lack of alterations to the draft NIETC proposals last year. After more than 2,000 comments from the public, along with state and local officials, the DOE published the final designation with only token changes.

Last month, Mr. Casey sent a letter signed by 14 other senators to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urging Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, ranking member Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, to delve further into how the transmission corridor program is being administered.

Last week, Leon Lowery, a member of the professional staff for the committee, said there would be a hearing on the NIETC issues.

“There will be a number of hearings on electricity issues,” he said. “Among those things are the corridor issues.”

Mr. Lowery said there has been no schedule set yet for the hearings, but that the transmission corridors would likely not receive a separate hearing.

Janice Crompton can be reached at jcrompton@post-gazette.com or 724-223-0156.
First published on March 9, 2008 at 12:00 am