Bill Responds to Washington Post Editorial
Your Sept. 2 editorial “Across State Lines” is an inaccurate and incomplete analysis, with a questionable conclusion, of the recommendation of Pennsylvania administrative law judges to the state Public Utility Commission that the TrAIL power line not be approved.
You might as well have printed the press releases of Dominion and Allegheny Power, the companies which will reap huge profits from its construction. The judges concluded that “the proposed project is a grandiose answer to a minor or even non-existent problem”, that “the costs and adverse impacts” of the line “clearly outweigh the benefits”, and that “non transmission solutions” were not studied by TrAILCO. Of course they weren’t, since there are no profits for them in alternative solutions.
The power line, which as you stated does not serve West Virginia, was approved by the state Public Service Commission, after more than a year-long period of state-wide hearings and public comment. Thousands of citizens and many organizations protested by letters, petitions and public testimony, overwhelmingly opposing TrAIL.
The PSC staff concluded that Allegheny Power had failed to prove the stated need for the power line. This recommendation was then reversed, and approved by the Commission, not because Allegheny Power did prove their case, but because they contributed several million dollars to state programs, and promised to reduce rates to users affected by the line.
On Aug. 29 Allegheny Power requested from the PSC a $173 million rate increase. The Chairman of the Commission is a former partner in the law firm which represents Allegheny Power in this case, and was appointed last year by Governor Joe Manchin.
Another even larger and more destructive line, the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH), was applied for by Allegheny Power a few days before approval of the TrAIL line. Business as usual in West Virginia, with regard to the interests of the coal and power industries.
You failed to mention that people are having their property taken against their will, that property values and the environment are being destroyed, that Congressman Joe Wolf and many other officials, in Virginia and other affected states, vigorously oppose the line, and that there is ample evidence refuting its stated need.
The National Energy Policy Act, which allows the Federal government to overrule states opposing power lines, was written by the Bush Administration with the help of the Energy industry, and is the target of many congressional efforts to revise it.
It is surprising and disappointing to see the Washington Post taking the position stated in your editorial. I suggest a thorough study on your part of the many issues involved, and of the opinions and evidence of opponents of more reckless power line construction.
WILLIAM GOLEMON
Capon Valley Coalition
Yellow Spring, WV
September 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Wonderful comments. I had missed the Post editorial, but it doesn’t surprise me. The Post is vaguely leftish on many things, but it is all pro-business on many others. You really hit the nail on the head. As someone who lives in Shepherdstown and is now threated by PATH, and who joined in protesting TrAIL, I hope that we will get support in opposing PATH. Although the chairman of the WV PSC did recuse himself from TrAIL, decision, I am sure he was active behind the scdenes. The reversal by the staff was disgraceful. Michael Lippe, Shepherdstown