Northern Virginia Daily, November 8, 2008

by Garren Shipley

Opponents of a controversial high-voltage power line are taking their case to the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Piedmont Environmental Council and other groups announced Friday that they will appeal a Virginia State Corporation Commission decision last month that allows the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line project to go forward.

Both Dominion Virginia and Allegheny Power have said the 500-kilovolt transmission line is needed to avoid rolling blackouts in Northern Virginia as soon as 2011.

Opponents say the line isn't needed, and that electrical demand can be met with conservation projects, local generation and other methods.

The $1 billion-plus project would run from western Pennsylvania to a substation near Middletown, before turning west and south to run along existing rights of way to another substation in Loudoun County.

Friday's notice is not a substantive argument, only a forewarning to all the parties involved that the matter will be appealed, said Bob Lazaro, a spokesman for PEC.

But the brief that will be filed next year likely won't come as a shock to those who have followed the case, Lazaro added.

"Our position is fairly public," he said. "We believe the SCC has subordinated itself to a non-state agency," PJM Interconnection, which runs the electrical grid in the mid-Atlantic area.

Virginia law requires regulators to put the good of Virginians first, not those who live outside the commonwealth, when making regulatory decisions, according to the group.

One member of the three-judge panel noted in the ruling allowing the power line that PJM's planning process has not "produced the best result for Virginia."

Even if the Virginia Supreme Court rules against the environmental group, the power line isn't yet a done deal. Regulators in both West Virginia and Virginia have made their approvals contingent upon approval from their Pennsylvania counterparts.

That state has issued a preliminary denial, but a final ruling could come at any time.

"It's a long pause," said Lazaro. "We've talked to folks there and we've not been given any hard deadline as to when" regulators might issue a final ruling.