News
We will add news clippings and important documents to this page as we learn of them. Come back often and stay informed.
If you see news about the Allegheny Power TrAIL line or Capon Valley, send it to us so we can share it with everyone.
(Some of these files require the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. They are marked “PDF”. You can download the Reader software free from www.adobe.com.)
January 24, 2007: Yellow Spring Group Forms; Plan to fight power line project (Hampshire Review)Read the PDF file here.
(This is a large file and may take a while to open using a dial-up connection. It also requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. See above.)
January 24, 2007: Lahmansville Residents Don’t Like Route for Power Line (Cumberland Times-News)
PETERSBURG - Lahmansville area residents are not opposed to a new power line proposed by Allegheny Energy, but they don’t want it to follow a route through their farms and community that already have a high voltage power line, Corridor H construction and a flood control project.
Read the entire article at www.times-news.com.
January 24, 2007: Letters to the Editor (Moorefield Examiner)You can open the PDF file here. (This is a large file and may take a while to open via a dial-up connection. It also requries the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to open. See above.)
January 16, 2007: Data Dearth — They Might as Well Have Been Talking to a Wall (Fauquier Times-Democrat)Our allies at the Piedmont Environmental Coalition sat down with the editorial board of the Fauquier Times-Democrat. Here is part of the report of that meeting:
To no avail, PEC has sought from Dominion “information on (electricity) demand, where it came from? How much (electricity) forecasts are? Source of need” and the like, said PEC volunteer Mitch Diamond, who headed the energy division of Booz Allen Hamilton, a major consulting firm with offices in Washington. ”It’s so important to understand how electricity gets divided among” residential, commercial, industrial and other users, Diamond suggested. “That’s the only way you can analyze” Dominion’s power line request, which the State Corporation Commission (SCC) will either deny or approve in some fashion, he said. The utility plans to submit an application for a line to the commission in the spring. So far Dominion has given PEC only a simple bar chart, which under a confidentiality agreement the environmental group cannot disclose or discuss. PEC deems that unsatisfactory because it claims the limited data doesn’t enable the group’s analysts to draw any conclusions about need for the proposed line.
read the entire piece at TimesCommunity.com.
January 3, 2007: Ashton Woods Residents Oppose Power Line (Moorefield Examiner)You can open a PDF file of the article here.
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December 11, 2006: Landowners Fear Ruin from Power Line Route (Washington Post)
The 15-story towers and crackling cables that are planned to cut across the Northern Virginia countryside are just red lines on a map, a paper illustration of what could come.
Read the entire article or leave a comment for the reporter at WashingtonPost.com.
December 6, 2006: Power Line Routes Cause for Discussion (Hampshire Review)Open the article here.(It requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. See above. This is a large file and may take a while to open over a dial-up connection.)
September 19, 2006: FERC and DOE Lay Groundwork for Federal Transmission Corridors (Energy Legal Blog)This blog post from the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP provides background about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the creation of National Interest Electric Transmission (NIET) corridors. Allegheny Power and its corporate allies are trying to ram the TrAIL power line project through West Virginia as part of one of these NIET corridors. This is one of the greatest threats to the Capon Valley, because it would allow them to ignore public input.Here’s how the blog explains it:
Within a NIET corridor, FERC can permit and condemn right-of-way for construction of an electric transmission line provided that FERC finds that
the state where the line is to be located lacks siting authority or state law prohibits siting to achieve interstate (as opposed to intrastate) benefits;the permit applicant is not eligible for site approval because it does not provide retail service in the state; the state with siting authority fails to act on an application within one year; or the state siting body attaches conditions that will prevent congestion reduction or make the new line economically infeasible.
This FERC authority, added in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, created for the first time federal eminent domain for electric transmission.
It also has a bit about the National Electric Transmission Congestion Study that identifies the NIET corridors. (The study is 122 pages long and takes a while to load.) While the piece gets technical, you can read the entire blog post at EnergyLegalBlog.com.
August 17, 2006: Power Line May be on Fast Track (The State Journal)This article, which quite frankly none of us saw, lays out Allegheny Power’s plans and intentions in clear detail. It starts out:
A new transmission line proposed to cross 120 miles of north-central and Potomac Highlands counties in West Virginia entered the routing study stage when it received approval from grid operator PJM Interconnection in June.It also may get support for expedited handling from the federal government.
Then it gets downright scary when it explains how the utilities involved hope to bypass state regulators, who have a habit of listening to the residents of their states.
Federal Recognition Optimism about TrAIL’s timeline is supported by a federal Department of Energy transmission study released Aug. 8. The National Electric Transmission Congestion Study details problem areas in the nation’s electric grid — areas where grid operators can’t always move as much electricity as they want to from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. … Based on the study, the DOE can designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors — a designation that Allegheny Energy has requested for the TrAIL, and that would allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to step in if state authorities do not process transmission applications within one year.
Now here’s the kicker, the rationale for running this power line through our communities:
“The area from greater New York City south along the coast to northern Virginia is one continuous congestion area,” the study states.
Last time we looked, West Virginia was NOT in that area. You can read the entire article at StateJournal.com.