Northern Virginia Daily, October 8, 2008

by Garren Shipley

A controversial power line planned for the Northern Shenandoah Valley has been given a green light by Virginia regulators.

The Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, planned by Dominion Virginia and Allegheny Power, would run from western Pennsylvania to Loudoun County via Frederick and Warren counties.

Both utility companies say the line is necessary to avoid rolling blackouts in Northern Virginia as soon as 2011.

But opponents argued the line was unneeded and merely a way for the two companies to sell more power at the expense of the region's landscape and historic sites.

Writing in an order released Tuesday, the commission unanimously agreed with utilities that the line was necessary to keep electrical service reliable.

Opponents of the line had argued that new power plants in the region — including one planned for Warren County — could make the line unnecessary, but the three judges disagreed.

Even if the new plants were rushed to completion, "they would not solve the problems that establishes the need for this line," the judges wrote.

But there was some hope for opponents in the ruling. Construction on the new line cannot begin unless regulators in Pennsylvania also sign off on the project. An administrative law judge there has issued a preliminary recommendation that the project be denied.

A spokesman for Dominion said the utility was pleased with the outcome.

"As we said from the beginning of this process more than 21/2 years ago, this transmission line is the best and only answer to keep the lights on in an important section of our country and our state beginning in the summer of 2011," says John D. Smatlak, vice president of transmission for Dominion, in a press release.

Opponents are still pondering their options.

"PEC and our legal team will be reviewing this decision over the next week to determine a course of action," said Bri West, a spokeswoman for the Piedmont Environmental Council, an environmental group opposed to the line.

"Decisions of the SCC can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia," she said. "We are all still waiting on the decision out of Pennsylvania and are extremely hopeful that Pennsylvania will follow the advice of their administrative law judges and turn down the transmission line."

The decision was no real surprise, said Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Upperville.

Pressure from Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's administration during the legislative session and his later appointment of Dominion's lead counsel on the case to be a judge on the panel showed which way the wind was blowing long ago. "This was telegraphed early on that it was going this way," Holtzman Vogel said.

Winning an appeal at the Supreme Court would be a high hill to climb, she added.

"We can all make a ruckus, but ultimately the only real remedy is to appeal, and I'm not optimistic that the Supreme Court would overturn the SCC," she said.

"Based on what I know I'm very disappointed," added Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, a staunch power-line opponent.

Kaine could have simultaneously improved the regulatory process and kept the federal government from stepping into the decision — which could happen if Pennsylvania says no — by forming an interstate compact with West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

"The governor still has the opportunity to use that provision of the law and deal with this on a compact basis," Wolf said. "I urge him to do that."

If regulators make a mistake and desecrate "truly hallowed ground" along the route, Wolf added, it "will be a mistake for the rest of [Kaine's] life and the rest of our lives."

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