Is this the same as HB 4403?  Did it ever get brought up in the House Judiciary?

From: Tina Rappaport [mailto:tinazipp@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: UPDATE: SB 614 out of Committee but gutted of land owner protection

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Haverty Family <haverty6@frontiernet.net> wrote:

Bill's latest blog post below sums up where we are with SB 614 and now we know where Kessler stands. It isn't with us! Here is his email again if you want to let him know one more voter will not forget this. jeff.kessler@wvsenate.gov And most of all spread the word to your friends and neighbors, because this guy has his eyes on a bigger office. 

Ali

On Monday, March 1, Senator Jeff Kessler, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, put SB614 on the Committee’s agenda for a vote.  The bill was passed out of the committee on voice vote and went on to its first reading on the floor of the Senate.

But wait.

This is not the SB614 that was introduced in the Senate by Senators Unger and Snyder.  Senator Kessler, after private discussions with power company lobbyists, used his prerogative as chairman of the Judiciary Committee to offer a committee substitute to SB614 that completely eliminated the most important feature of SB614.  Sen. Kessler did not ask for any debate about his changes and rammed the bill through the Committee in a matter of minutes.

Sen. Kessler’s substitute bill removed the requirement that land owners along the proposed power line route be notified by certified mail.  Apparently, Sen. Kessler bought the power company claims that individual notice was “too burdensome” for Allegheny Energy, which regularly pays its CEO enough bonuses to make him the eighth highest paid CEO in the US.

I personally told Sen. Kessler last week that the power companies knew who all the land owners already in the PATH case, because as soon as the WV PSC shut the door on new intervenors on July 15, 2009, AEP/Allegheny started contacting land owners about survey agreements.  I also told Sen. Kessler that Allegheny Energy already is required to provide personal notice to land owners in power line cases in PA and East Virginia.  In fact, Allegheny had to notify all land owners along the PATH line in East Virginia when they filed the PATH case there.

Senator Kessler did the dirty work, but he wasn’t working for West Virginia property owners.  He was working for the out of state energy conglomerates who could care less about our state or our homes.

If the bill passes out of the Senate, there is still lots of time to fix SB614 in the House.  As Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Bill