The August Legislative Interim committee meetings schedule and agendas were posted very late Friday.
The most notable (and important) meeting this month is on Monday, Aug. 10, when Finance Subcommittee B, chaired by Senator Walt Helmick, will take up SCR 57- requesting the Joint Committee on Government and Finance study the proposed new state business and occupation tax on high-voltage electric power transmission lines. The committee will have a presentation on the Governor's proposed transmission line tax from Jonathan Deem, the Governor's General Counsel. The meeting is from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM in the Senate Finance Committee meeting room.
This is an incredible opportunity. Those who are in town for the status hearing should make every effort to get to the Capitol at 4 PM in massive numbers. The Legislature needs to hear about the problems with the Transmission line process, and be told in no uncertain terms that a vote for this tax is a vote to take people homes and farms!
Instead of a transmission tax, the PSC siting process needs to be reformed by:
1) Mandate that applicants provide written notification to all affected property owners, 2) Direct the PSC to balance the needs of ratepayers against the need for transmission lines; 3) Direct the PSC to evaluate alternatives to new transmission lines (including demand-side management alternatives) where feasible, less-impacting alternatives exist. 4) Protect designated scenic areas; and 5) Consider indirect as well as direct impacts. Currently, only those property directly crossed by the line are compensated, neighbors suffer real losses, but get nothing. 6) Consider the increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from plants producing the electricity to be carried by these lines.
Make sure the Legislature knows that phony fixes are not acceptable, and the transmission tax is a fraudulent "bait-and-switch". I suspect that even the Governor knows it is unconstitutional, but it would allow the Governor and the PSC to claim that the line benefits West Virginia, and then, by the time it is challenged in court and tossed out, the line will have been built.
I plan to attend the hearing, and urge anyone else to attend. Attached is a draft fact sheet that we put together for our alternative, the PSC Reform Act. Please let me have comments before noon Monday.
JBK