The Winchester Star, May 2, 2008

by Drew Houff

WINCHESTER — The Piedmont Environmental Council has joined five regional and national environmental and historical preservation organizations in fighting the U.S. Department of Energy’s final designation of the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.

The Warrenton-based PEC has teamed with the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in fighting the naming of the corridors, saying they are a direct violation of statutory requirements of the 2005 Energy Policy Act and environmental laws.

Fauquier County also has joined the fight, noting that part of the Mid-Atlantic corridor’s swath goes through the county.

Robert Lazaro, director of communications for the PEC, said his organization’s involvement is in part to note how transmission corridors limit states’ ability to handle power lines and related issues.

He said the Department of Energy has refused to reconsider the corridor designations, bringing together the varied groups to fight the action.

The Mid-Atlantic corridor would go through 220 counties in eight states — Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware — as well as Washington, D.C.

The Southwest corridor would include portions of Arizona and California.

The case challenging the designated corridors will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth District, in San Francisco, where similar cases have been consolidated.

Lazaro said the corridor designations did not include environmental reviews of the land affected, basically meaning that about 70 million acres have been turned over carte blanche for use by the power companies.

"It is usurping the states’ ability to handle the issue," he said. "The states had been doing a good job of review."

Representatives from the other groups in the lawsuit have shared similar concerns about the corridors.

"The Department of Energy’s sweeping designation of the two massive corridors puts some of our nation’s most significant historic places at risk, including Civil War battlefields, National Heritage Areas, tribal cultural resources, and some of our most historic landscapes," Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a press release issued by the PEC.

"Opening the door to an expedited approval process — one that places untenable time constraints on the states to authorize transmission projects — forces the public to accept the siting for transmission lines with little or no regard for the resources affected by these sprawling projects," Moe said. "Our purpose in bringing this appeal is to ensure that the Department [of Energy] fully considers the potentially devastating impact on historic and natural resources before making any siting decisions."

Bryan Faehner of the National Parks Conservation Association said that adding power lines near or through national park sites could severely compromise the scenery.

"It is simply inappropriate for energy corridors to be be built within the geographic boundaries of, or even within the view of, national parks such as Gettysburg," he said in the PEC press release.

Meanwhile, the Virginia State Corporation Commission is reviewing a joint proposal from Dominion Virginia Power and Allegheny Energy for a 500-kilovolt transmission line that would run from the West Virginia border to the Meadow Brook substation near Middletown, and then on to another substation in Loudoun County.

The SCC held public hearings regarding the Dominion/Allegheny power line last year in Warrenton, Bristow, Front Royal, and Frederick County.

In February and March, evidentiary hearings were held in Richmond to gain more input on the proposed transmission line, which would be located within the designated Mid-Atlantic corridor.

If the Mid-Atlantic corridor designation is upheld, the U.S. Department of Energy would gain the authority to override the Virginia SCC and similar organizations in other states if regulators vote to decline applications for power lines.

Officials from Dominion Virginia Power and Allegheny Energy have said the power line that would run from Frederick County to Loudoun County is needed to meet Northern Virginia’s rising electrical demand and prevent the likelihood of rolling blackouts in 2011.