Heated testimony at a hearing yesterday about a proposed 65-mile high-voltage
power line through Northern Virginia provided a hint of
the friction associated with the project and the tension ahead as the state
begins deciding whether to approve it.
Many people waited all afternoon at Fauquier High School in Warrenton for the chance to address a
State Corporation Commission hearing examiner, who will play a key role in
deciding whether the 500 kilovolt line proposed by Dominion Virginia Power and
Allegheny Power should be built.
Although organized opposition to the project has been fierce and many
speakers condemned it, a parade of business owners and representatives from
Northern Virginia chambers of commerce endorsed it, saying the area's economy
will depend on a reliable flow of electricity.
"The success of the high-tech-driven economy in Fairfax County and the rest of Northern
Virginia" depends on maintaining the infrastructure, said William D. Lecos,
president and chief executive of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, reading
from a statement. "Without it, the economy of Northern Virginia cannot
thrive."
But William Arrington, whose southern Fauquier County farm could be sliced by
the line, said that if Fairfax needs power, that's Fairfax's
problem "because that's where the over-development has been allowed to run
rampant."
The hearing was the first of eight scheduled this summer about the
transmission line, which is planned for parts of Frederick, Fauquier, Rappahannock,
Culpeper and Prince William counties before ending
at a substation in Loudoun County. Without it, the region
might face rolling blackouts within five years, Dominion officials have
said.
Since announcing the project last summer, Dominion has encountered
well-organized, sometimes emotional opposition from landowners, conservationists
and others who say the line would scar the landscape and encourage the
construction of polluting coal plants. The company revised the line's route to
avoid environmentally and historically significant areas, and the opposition has
persisted.
Led by the slow-growth Piedmont Environmental Council, critics
have promised to convince the state that the project is not needed for Northern
Virginia. The Warrenton-based organization has raised about $1 million to fight
the project, organizing rallies and commissioning studies that emphasize
alternatives such as conservation.
This month, Dominion has stepped up its efforts to convince residents that
the line is essential for the health of Northern Virginia's electrical grid and
that no alternative will suffice.
Dominion commissioned and is heavily promoting an April study by KEMA, a Massachusetts engineering firm, that
shows "there will be significant problems in the system that will require new
transmission facilities by 2011."
A full-page newspaper ad by Dominion this week said, "Without a new
transmission line, Northern Virginians will need to reduce electrical use by
40%." And the company has been reaching out to business owners who support the
line, asking them to speak out at hearings that are expected to be dominated by
the line's critics.
Six more meetings will take place next month -- in Bristow, Winchester and Front Royal. The commission will spend
the fall studying the issue and will reconvene in January to hear arguments from
attorneys for the different sides. If the commission approves the project,
Dominion officials hope to have it built by 2011.
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Scores press SCC to reject Dominion plan
By: Don Del Rosso, 07/31/2007, Fauquier
Times-Democrat
There seemed to be no end in sight.
For two days and
more than 10 hours, they attacked Dominion Virginia Power's proposed
transmission line through the Piedmont.
In speeches long and short,
impassioned and measured, opponents from Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper,
Loudoun and elsewhere hammered away at familiar themes.
The utility has failed to demonstrate a need for the planned
500,000-volt line, they told the State Corporation Commission during a public
hearing last Thursday and Friday in the Fauquier High School
auditorium.
The proposed line would destroy vistas and pristine land under
easement, diminish property values, degrade air quality and compromise
agricultural operations, tourism and historic sites, critics told SCC Hearing
Examiner Alexander F. Skirpan Jr..
Ninety-four of the 106 speakers asked
Skirpan to recommend denial of the proposed line. Fifty-eight of the public
hearing speakers live in Fauquier. (Skirpan will make a recommendation to the
SCC's three-judge panel, which will decide the matter.)
Just 12 people,
representing Northern Virginia businesses or organizations such as the Fairfax
County Chamber of Commerce, the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce and
the Vienna-Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce, testified in favor of the
proposed line.
Dominion insists the line must be in place by 2011, or
Northern Virginia faces the prospect of rolling blackouts. Its 1,000-page
application to the SCC includes a 70-page analysis by Massachusetts-based KEMA
Inc. that argues a transmission line would provide the only practical solution
to meet Northern Virginia's immediate and long-term electricity
demands.
The proposed line would link substations in Frederick and
Loudoun counties. It would parallel an existing transmission line but require
Dominion and its partner, Allegheny Power, to acquire substantial additional
rights of way from private landowners.
Besides Frederick and Loudoun, the
proposed 65-mile line would cut through parts of Fauquier, Rappahannock,
Culpeper and Prince William counties. The alternative route would connect the
same substations along Interstate 66, using Virginia Department of
Transportation right-of-way.
Under either scenario, the line would be
suspended from steel towers that, in places, could exceed 150
feet.
Dominion's "credibility" should be tested, said Kathleen King, a
retired federal government lawyer from Broad Run. She claims the utility has
given no specifics about the precise location of the proposed power
line.
"There are absolutely no straight answers," she told the hearing
examiner. "I have no idea how close I am to those (proposed) power towers (along
I-66), but I'm close....We can't get information from the applicant to tell us
where the power line is going."
Like many others, King believes that
conservation methods and more efficient technology would eliminate the need for
a new line.
Her remarks elicited cheers and clapping, which Skirpan
quickly squelched with a stern reminder.
Before the hearing started
Thursday afternoon, he explained to the audience that the hearing would be
operated similar to a courtroom proceeding. Speakers, which he called witnesses,
would be sworn in and could be subject to questioning by SCC staff and lawyers
and attorneys representing various interests.
"It's not a situation where
we have audience participation," Skirpan said. "I don't want applause, boos or
any types of comments from the audience."
If necessary, he would evacuate
the auditorium and listen to speakers individually.
William Arrington of
Catlett called the proposal "ill-conceived." Arrington contended that Dominion
has yet to demonstrate a need for the line, which he claims would violate the
sanctity of conservation easements.
He also said the line would produce
electromagnetic fields, posing "unacceptable health risks to the general
public."
If Northern Virginia indeed needs substantially more
electricity, then build a power plant there, Arrington suggested.
William
Stribling of Markham said the I-66 alternative would devastate an area rich with
historic and agricultural importance, undermining Fauquier's agribusiness and
tourism economies.
Harry Atherton, who represents Marshall District on
the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors, spoke as a private citizen. He pointed
out that Fauquier has one of the highest concentrations of conservation
easements in the nation, with more than 77,000 acres permanently protected from
further development.
Moreover, he said it claims 29 sites on the Virginia
Landmarks list and National Register of Historic Places, two scenic rivers, 10
Civil War battlefields, 17,000 acres in historic districts, 8,000 acres in state
management reserves, 1,800 acres of state park land and 1,000 acres of county
park land.
"This is not by accident, but the result of many decades of
public and private efforts to preserve this historic and beautiful part of
[Virginia]" he concluded. "If the end result of these efforts is that the county
has become the corridor of least resistance for the transmission line of power
to the Mid-Atlantic, this seems both unfair and unnecessary."
Fauquier's
population stands at "just over 60,000" and thus isn't "a significant
contributor to congestion on the Northern Virginia [power] grid," Atherton also
noted
To the contrary, Fauquier has been part of the solution to the
area's energy needs, because it approved two natural gas-fueled generators near
Remington that operate during the hottest and coldest days, he
claimed.
Katherine Kristie of Rappahannock County focused on air quality
and health-related issues.
The proposed line would transmit electricity
generated by some of the nation's "dirtiest" coal-burning plants, Kristie
said.
"Why?" she asked. Because "it is much cheaper for the power
industry to continue to rely on some of the dirtiest plants than to utilize
cleaner-generation energy plants located closer to northeast customer
demand."
Kristie continued: "But when public health costs and
environmental impacts are considered, is this truly the cheapest
solution?"
She and other critics also believe Dominion wants the line
chiefly because it would reap huge profits from electricity destined for the
Northeast.
The KEMA report does not address the line's financial
implications for Dominion.
KEMA's Jeff Palermo, who helped prepare the
transmission line study, said Northern Virginia, a "big-time" importer of
electricity, would be the primary beneficiary of the line, not the eastern
seaboard.
Northern Virginia's business community was represented in force
at the hearing.
Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Hugh Keogh said
the continued robust expansion of the region's economy depends the
"predictability and availability" of electricity.
Northern Virginia
generates high-paying technology jobs that provide spinoff financial benefits
for the entire state, Keogh said. A perceived lack of energy in the next decade
could threaten future economic development opportunities, he
added
Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce William D. Lecos called Northern
Virginia the state's "economic engine."
As its high-tech sector grows, so
must critical infrastructure such reliable electricity sources to sustain
business, Lecos said.
"There's every reason to believe this trend [of
economic growth] will continue," he said.
Representatives of the National
Association of Industrial Office Properties and several businesses spoke in
support of the power line.
SCC hearings will continue during the next two
weeks in Prince William County, Winchester and Front Royal.
Dominion
Spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson said the hearing offered no surprises. "We feel that,
frankly, it was an example of why the SCC process is fair," giving people a
chance "to talk as long as they wanted to" about issues that concern them,
Anderson said.
"It was nice to hear from independent organizations,
businesses and associations" that support the line, she added.
Despite
widespread objections to the proposal, Anderson said "We still believe the need
is great. We're steadfast in the belief the need is real."
The hearing
turnout and "quality of testimony" impressed Chris Miller, president of Piedmont
Environment Council, which plans to spend more than $2 million to fight the
project.
"Are the hearings meaningful?" Miller said. "Yes. You're getting
hundreds of people testifying about the [line's] impacts on their lives. The
quality of testimony is very high. There's a lot of information that otherwise
would not be on the record."
Some people waited up to four hours to
testify, he said.
"The intestinal fortitude was high," Miller said.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Power struggle
Area residents
denounce line proposal
By Drew Houff, The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — The first day of local hearings regarding a
proposed 550-kilovolt transmission line that may pass through Frederick
County seemed at least slightly different from previous hearings in
Warrenton and Bristow.
For one, none of the 32 speakers at James Wood High School on
Monday supported the proposed joint project from Dominion Virginia Power
and Allegheny Energy’s Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Co.
subsidiary. |
The hearings in Warrenton at least had a few contractors and
developers who appeared to back the project, which power company officials say
is needed to provide for increased electricity needs in Northern
Virginia.
The general theme from the first day of public testimony at
James Wood suggested that neither Allegheny nor Dominion had provided
information to support the claim that the new lines are needed.
No one from either company testified. That testimony will come
in evidentiary hearings beginning on Jan. 14 in Richmond.
Alexander F. Skirpan Jr., the hearing examiner for the State
Corporation Commission, will listen to all of the testimony at each hearing and
then file a recommendation with the commission, which will decide the fate of
the proposal, said Andy Farmer, the SCC’s education resources
manager.
Skirpan reminded people attending Monday’s morning and evening
hearings that this was a court of record for the testimony and that audience
participation, including clapping in favor of some remarks, would not be viewed
favorably.
He confirmed that position during the morning hearing when the
audience applauded testimony from Wingate Mackay-Smith of White Post.
She said she was speaking with mixed emotion, but reminded those
in attendance that approval of the proposal was similar to giving the 800-pound
gorilla a banana.
"There’s no evidence that Virginia has any need for new lines to
avoid blackouts in 2011, as the companies claim," Smith said, drawing some
enthusiastic cheers.
Skirpan quickly responded, reminding everyone that he could
close the hearings if they continued to interrupt testimony. He encountered no
such problems in the evening session.
Clarke County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Staelin, the
lone local officeholder to speak on Monday, said his board had opposed the
possibility of a high-voltage line through his county a year ago, leading to a
unanimous resolution in opposition.
"I came here today because I want to make sure you know this is
not a ‘Not in my backyard’ issue," he said. "This power line may have moved out
of Clarke County’s backyard, but that does not suddenly make it a better idea
for either Clarke or the rest of the citizens of the commonwealth."
Elizabeth Tate of Star Tannery offered a theme that was echoed
by many, noting that Allegheny’s treatment of the landscape had decreased the
values of property.
She said her family had tried to leave behind the visual clutter
in Virginia Beach for the unscarred environment of the northern Shenandoah
Valley, but added that the proposal would put a gash in the trees and bring
other unsightly problems.
Eleanore Boudreaux of Stephens City agreed, noting that she had
lost livestock and value to her property because of moves by
Allegheny.
Ellen Rivers of Frederick County said Virginia has to set a good
example, evaluating the effects of the lines before approving them.
Barbara Smith of Stephens City said another potential concern
for the lines would be their impact on tourism, particularly the effect on
sightlines near the Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation near
Middletown.
Stanley M. Hirschberg, president of The Cedar Creek Battlefield
Foundation, agreed, noting that tourist dollars may disappear along with the
views if 120-foot-tall power lines are installed.
The hearings at James Wood will continue today at 9:30
a.m.
Additional public hearings are scheduled at the North Warren
Volunteer Fire Department near Front Royal on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday’s hearings will begin at 1:30 p.m. and reconvene at 7 p.m, and
Thursday’s hearing will begin at 9:30
a.m.