The transmission line project (that is detailed in the below article) has constantly been pushed on the people of the mountains by those wishing to provide more energy to city dwellers. I, for one, am disgusted that we are expected to sacrifice our rural vistas (and, ultimately our mountains through the increased demand for coal) just so people in metropolitan areas can continue to live so extravagantly. Turn out the lights, for Christ’s sake. How about one big screen tv instead of three.

As rural dwellers, we accept certain inconveniences to live in “God’s country.” Let the city dwellers do the same. You live in the city. You may have rolling black outs. It’s an “inconvenience” so that you can experience all the “conveniences” of city life.

We all know that if these power lines go through, energy from the rural areas will be drained to provide even more energy to the increasingly power hungry city dwellers. Historically, we have been the peripheral region that provides energy to the more powerful population centers. It remains that way.

The cherry on top, however, is how we are going to be expected to pay MORE in our energy bills to subsidize this!! OUTRAGEOUS! If constructed, we should be paid for the decimation of our land and not have to foot the bill to supply even more electricity to maintain the unsustainable lifestyles of the metropolitan areas.

http://www.wvgazette.com/latest/200803230145

March 23, 2008
Dominion purchase silences power line critic

McLEAN, Va. — The owners of a planned power plant in rural Warren County were among the chief opponents of a proposed 65-mile, $243 million high-voltage transmission line through Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that has drawn scorn from some environmentalists and preservationists.
That was until Dominion Resources Inc., the transmission line’s chief proponent, bought the rights to the Warren County project lock, stock and barrel for an undisclosed price.
Just before the purchase was announced, Silver Spring, Md.-based Competitive Power Ventures Inc. rescinded its opposition to the power line, surprising environmental groups. The company’s withdrawal came just days before a crucial regulatory hearing in Virginia that could determine whether the line gets built.
Dominion says the purchase was completely legitimate — the kind of thing it does all the time as it seeks to increase its generating capacity.
Opponents say it was a thinly veiled means of buying off its opponents.
“It’s like the New York Yankees. If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em,” said Bob Lazaro, spokesman for the Piedmont Environmental Council, referring to the Yankees’ propensity for using their big budget to sign away other teams’ top stars.
Opponents of the transmission line were pleased when CPV sided with them in West Virginia, where the multistate line also would extend. CPV had argued that the power line wasn’t necessary because the region’s electricity needs could be met locally by projects including the 600-megawatt natural gas power plant planned for Warren County.
CPV had been similarly critical of the line in a filing to Virginia’s State Corporation Commission. But it formally withdrew its opposition before the Feb. 25 SCC hearing.
On March 4, Dominion announced it had bought the rights to the Warren County project.
While the facts are not in dispute, opponents of the line question Dominion’s motivation in buying the project and CPV’s motivation in withdrawing its testimony.
Dominion says it is “absolutely not accurate” to insinuate that the purchase was done to silence competition to the power line.
Dominion spokesman Jim Norvelle said the Richmond-based company makes such purchases all the time. For example, it recently announced plans to buy a planned power plant in Southwestern Virginia.
What’s more, federal regulations establish a firewall between Dominion’s transmission business, which delivers electricity, and its generation business, which creates electricity. As a result, Norvelle said, those on the transmission side of the company who argued the case for the power line had no idea that Dominion was negotiating a purchase of the CPV project.
CPV’s Chris Ganley, who been in charge of the Warren County project, said the company still opposes the transmission line.
He said CPV pulled its testimony because it is a company with limited resources, and it had already spent a lot of time and money battling the power line in West Virginia. Ganley said that if the line is defeated in West Virginia, the Virginia case will be moot because the line must run through both states as well as Pennsylvania.
Ganley declined to comment on whether the terms of the sale to Dominion required CPV to withdraw its opposition at the Virginia hearing.
He said the negotiation over the Warren County project began in September, when privately held CPV approached Dominion. The companies did not release the financial terms of the deal.
Piedmont’s Lazaro said CPV’s testimony was an important part of the overall opposition case. CPV had planned to begin operations near Front Royal by 2010, and a 600-megawatt plant would provide significant additional capacity. (A 600-megawatt plant would increase Dominion’s generation capacity in the Virginia-Carolina region by 3.4 percent.)
Dominion, meanwhile, has made no commitment on when it would have the Front Royal plant up and running, and Lazaro said it’s now easier for the large energy company to argue that the transmission line is needed to bring additional capacity to the mid-Atlantic from the Midwest.
Norvelle countered that studies have shown that the transmission line is necessary even if the Front Royal plant is operating.
“To suggest that this single power station would alleviate the need (for the transmission line) is incorrect,” he said.
High-voltage transmission lines like the one sought by Dominion are often controversial, particularly among those who live along the line’s path. In this case, the line pitted Dominion — a company with $15.7 billion in operating revenue last year and one that wields enormous clout within Virginia — against a group of well-organized land owners in rural Virginia hunt country who have been effective in fighting off development.
Many of those currently active with the Piedmont Environmental Council are veterans of the battle more than 10 years ago to prevent Disney Corp. from building a large theme park in the region.
The transmission line as a whole would run 240 miles through West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia and would cost more than $1 billion to build. Dominion and others say the line is needed to help feed the region’s growing demand for electricity, and warn that blackouts are possible as soon as 2011 if the region does not increase its transmission network.
Those opposed to the line cite several factors. Some are concerned that the lines, which will run between towers as tall as 12 stories high, will butcher scenic vistas in the northern Virginia Piedmont. Others say that more should be done to encourage conservation rather than trying to build more power plants and transmission lines.
Finally, opponents say the line itself isn’t really needed, but that Dominion is simply looking for better access to cheap electricity generated by low-tech coal-fired power plants in the Midwest.
He said CPV pulled its testimony because it is a company with limited resources, and it had already spent a lot of time and money battling the power line in West Virginia. Ganley said that if the line is defeated in West Virginia, the Virginia case will be moot because the line must run through both states as well as Pennsylvania.
Ganley declined to comment on whether the terms of the sale to Dominion required CPV to withdraw its opposition at the Virginia hearing.
He said the negotiation over the Warren County project began in September, when privately held CPV approached Dominion. The companies did not release the financial terms of the deal.
Piedmont’s Lazaro said CPV’s testimony was an important part of the overall opposition case. CPV had planned to begin operations near Front Royal by 2010, and a 600-megawatt plant would provide significant additional capacity. (A 600-megawatt plant would increase Dominion’s generation capacity in the Virginia-Carolina region by 3.4 percent.)
Dominion, meanwhile, has made no commitment on when it would have the Front Royal plant up and running, and Lazaro said it’s now easier for the large energy company to argue that the transmission line is needed to bring additional capacity to the mid-Atlantic from the Midwest.
Norvelle countered that studies have shown that the transmission line is necessary even if the Front Royal plant is operating.
“To suggest that this single power station would alleviate the need (for the transmission line) is incorrect,” he said.
High-voltage transmission lines like the one sought by Dominion are often controversial, particularly among those who live along the line’s path. In this case, the line pitted Dominion — a company with $15.7 billion in operating revenue last year and one that wields enormous clout within Virginia — against a group of well-organized land owners in rural Virginia hunt country who have been effective in fighting off development.
Many of those currently active with the Piedmont Environmental Council are veterans of the battle more than 10 years ago to prevent Disney Corp. from building a large theme park in the region.
The transmission line as a whole would run 240 miles through West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia and would cost more than $1 billion to build. Dominion and others say the line is needed to help feed the region’s growing demand for electricity, and warn that blackouts are possible as soon as 2011 if the region does not increase its transmission network.
Those opposed to the line cite several factors. Some are concerned that the lines, which will run between towers as tall as 12 stories high, will butcher scenic vistas in the northern Virginia Piedmont. Others say that more should be done to encourage conservation rather than trying to build more power plants and transmission lines.
Finally, opponents say the line itself isn’t really needed, but that Dominion is simply looking for better access to cheap electricity generated by low-tech coal-fired power plants in the Midwest.

Posted by Shirley Stewart Burns, Ph.D.