High-voltage trouble
Power-line proposal would harm Pennsylvania, bringing benefit only to surrounding states
Monday, June 18, 2007
In late April, the U.S. Depart ment of Energy designated 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, and large swaths of seven neighboring states, as the Mid-Atlantic Area National Corridor for high-voltage transmission lines.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman earlier this month, Gov. Ed Rendell picked apart this federal overreach, pointedly asking how an area so vast can “realistically be related to actual transmission options?”
Part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 invested the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with authority to override states and give utility transmission-line proposals fast-track approval.
At least two major power lines have been proposed that would impact Pennsylvania, and more are likely.
One, a proposed $1 billion, 240-mile power line would run from Washington County in western Pennsylvania to Loudoun County in northern Virginia. Allegheny Energy Inc. already has filed for a rate increase in West Virginia to pay for the portion of the line that runs through that state, though it isn’t clear that West Virginia would benefit in any way.
That’s a concern of Rendell, who wrote Bodman that it appears a “perverse outcome” of designating the national corridor will be that “these transmission lines will be on our soil, but may not benefit Pennsylvania’s consumers.” He noted that neighboring states that have “refused to build generation resources” may be inclined to approve power lines through Pennsylvania, which is a net exporter of electricity, without considering possible alternatives.
At a hearing last week, Daniel Griffiths, director of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Energy Innovations and Technology Deployment, also expressed the administration’s concern that the power lines will undercut the state’s investment in clean, alternative energy sources by pulling power from old and dirty coal-fired power plants.
Congress needs to revisit the law that established the federal government as the nation’s power line czar. This is a deeply flawed concept that could lead to the building of unnecessary power lines, increased air and visual pollution, and let states off the hook that have done little to address their own power needs.
1 Comment
June 19, 2007 at 3:31 am
A flaw you are right, and one I knew nothing about.
Go figure.
Thank god you finally got off break. ;0