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Lovettsville will host second hearing on power line
The State Corporation Commission will convene a second public hearing on the controversial Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline in Lovettsville. The hearing will start at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Lovettsville Community Center, 57 E. Broad Way.
The 765,000-volt transmission line, as planned, will be built on towers across a little more than 10 miles of northern Loudoun County, from Between the Hills to Lovettsville to Point of Rocks.
Critics charge the line is a ploy to bring cheaper, coal-fired electricity from West Virginia to lucrative East Coast markets in New York and New Jersey. Allegheny Energy, PATH’s partner with American Electric Power, says that if the line is not built, the entire area will face power shortages by 2014.
The commission sat to hear public comment in early September at Loudoun Valley High School in Purcellville. Critics charged that the timing of the hearing, before school had started, precluded many from expressing their opinions.
The evidentiary hearing will be Jan. 10 in Richmond, contrary to requests from Loudoun lawmakers and citizens to hold it in Loudoun County, where the effects of the ultra-high-voltage line, if built, will be felt.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) wrote Oct. 8 to the chairman of the State Corporation Commission, Mark C. Christie, and urged him to reconsider and move the evidentiary hearing from Richmond to Loudoun.
“I believe this is a reasonable request since the proposed PATH project would stretch across areas far from Richmond,” he wrote.
In addition, Wolf continued, the commission has a duty to serve the interests of the citizens of Virginia, and one of its chief goals is to “provide assistance to Virginians who have valid disputes with regulated companies.”
The commission, Wolf concluded, should make it easier for those who wish to intervene at the evidentiary hearing, and it can do that by holding the hearing in Loudoun county.
Comments for the evidentiary hearing must be submitted by Jan. 12 to the clerk of the State Corporation Commission, Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, VA 23218, and refer to case number PUE-2009-00043. Submit comments electronically at the commission’s Web site. Click on the Submit Comments button for PUE-2009-00043.
-- Shannon Sollinger
Scare tactics abound. The network will crash if this ain't built. Yeah right.
The company pushing this is a power commodity reseller who does not have customers in West Virginia or Ohio. So they got the Government to front them the money to build this abomination to send the coal powered lines to NJ.(who's power usage decreases every month as alternatives and renewables are being brought online.)
And who is this commodity reseller? A company HQ'd in Barbados.(they don't pay the first US Dollar in taxes)
Pretty sweet deal if you can get it.
Posted by Bulletproof
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