State, Counties Prepare For Multistate Power Line (WJZ.com)
This story comes out of Maryland, and concerns the second power line that Allegheny wants to ram down our throats — the so-called PATH line. (Does someone stay up nights thinking up innocent cute-sounding names for power lines that will blight the landscape?)
Why is this important now?
At the end of the story, we see Allegheny’s real strategy. They don’t care what West Virginia does with TrAIL (or PATH). They don’t care that Maryland and Pennsylvania have rejected these power lines. They intend to get the Feds to do their dirty work for them … all in the name of national interest. (Big city interest is more like it.)
Read on:
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) ― State officials are urging local government leaders in several Maryland counties to prepare now for an upcoming debate over a proposed multistate high-voltage line.
The so-called PATH power line is planned by Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power. It would run from St. Albans, W.Va,, to Kemptown, Md., a community near where Frederick, Montgomery, Howard and Carroll counties meet.
Allegheny Power says the precise route may not be determined until the end of the year. The companies would then seek regulatory approval from the appropriate states.
The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail reports that a representative from Maryland’s Power Plant Research Program urged local governments and other interested parties at a meeting last week to start preparing now for the state regulatory process.
They were told that foot-dragging could enable the project to bypass the state process and win approval from federal regulators.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Living in Shepherdstown, WV, just across the river from Antietam Battlefield in Maryland, we have been following both TrAIL and PATH very closely. I myself testified against TrAIL at one of the public hearings, and it has been strongly opposed by many West Virginians and is now before the State’s Public Service Commission. The PSC staff initially opposed the application, but has now reversed its position after Allegheny offered additional financial incentives to the State. Of course, this should not logically havre changed the staff’s position because it did not change the official record concerning need and environmental impacts. However, financial incentives to the State seem to be a way of doing business here in WV. We await the PSC’s decision in August or before. There will be time for Allegheny to appeal to the Bush administration, if they are unsuccessful in the WV PSC. In the meantime, Allegheny is going ahead with PATH, looking at alternative routes. It seems clear that this will only be decided at the State level during the next administration in Washington, be it Obama, Clinton, or McCain. It is hard to say right now which administration would be friendlier to environmental and energy need arguments. Coal interests in WV and Pennsylvania are very, very strong. Parenthetically, I was quite disappointed to see that Maryland’s Governor recently turned down new wind sources of energy in Western Maryland. One of our arguments in WV has been that our good neighbors to the East are not doing enough to solve their own energy needs and this seems to be borne out by the Governor’s decision. Let us all unite in opposition to TrAIL and PATH and in favor of sensible energy policies!!!