____________________________________ From: website@stopthetowers.org Sent: 3/11/2008 3:49:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time Subj: Stop the Towers Update
March 9, 2008 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Here is latest update on the Stop the Towers efforts and related issues. You can always find the latest at the website and on the ECCO Hotline at 724-267-3040. Please stay involved and work to keep all your friends and neighbors informed. Buses Are Filling Up The PUC Evidentiary Hearings in Pittsburgh are just two weeks away and the buses are filling up! Beginning at 10:00 am on March 24th at the State Office Building, the Public Utility Commission will begin hearings on the proposed AP TrAIL. To assist the residents in Washington and Greene Counties, Stop the Towers is organizing buses to take you up and back for the hearings. For less than the cost of gas and parking, not to mention you won’t have to worry about fighting the traffic, you can ride a bus with other Stop the Towers supporters and be dropped off in front of the State Office Building. Please contact Rebecca Foley (_rfoley1@windstream.net_ (mailto:rfoley1@windstream.net) ) as soon as possible to reserve your seat. Departure and return times will be available from Rebecca. TrAIL Co Sends Insulting Letter to ALJ’s We believe it is important to have YOU attend the Evidentiary Hearings. Apparently, TrAIL Co does not! Earlier this week, TrAIL Co sent a letter to the Administrative Law Judges asking them to issue an order about proper decorum in the courtroom. They caution the ALJ’s by asking for “observers in the hearing room is (be) closely monitored for everyone's safety, and to permit sufficient room for all the parties, counsel, witnesses and staff before making space available for observers.” TrAIL Co is worried that we won’t properly behave and would disrupt the proceedings. They point to the Public Input Hearings and said that the supporters of TrAIL were “concerned about their personal safety in returning to their vehicles”. First of all, isn’t that ironic that the same company that has been sending land agents onto our properties, harassing and intimidating people in their own homes, is now worried about that same kind of behavior. Secondly, never has Stop the Towers encouraged nor supported such behavior and we certainly are not now! We simply believe that it is important to continue to put faces to the rural Americans whose lives will be destroyed or at the very least severely disrupted should this unnecessary, greed-driven proposal be approved!! So what are you going to do? Contact Rebecca and reserve your seat now!!!
DOE does it Again! Once again, the Department of Energy has ignored everyone, except the utility companies that will profit greatly, by denying all requests for Re-Hearings on the NIETC designations. Even with a number of environmental groups filing lawsuit against the designations, the DOE continues to support a flawed energy policy that will encourage long-distant transmission lines coming from the highly polluting, coal-fired generation plants rather than cleaner, safer alternatives. Better alternatives which include demand-side management programs, conservation, upgrading existing infrastructure and the most reasonable solution, building the generation plants near the demand. Utility companies benefit greatly from section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as they will be granted profits of up to 14% or more, passing ALL costs on to the rate payers and all the while taking property and destroying the lives of rural Americans. This is exactly what is happening here in southwestern Pennsylvania with the proposed AP TrAIL! Fortunately, most environmental groups and at least some of our Congressman see the flaws in this policy. We must be thankful for people like Senator Casey and the others that recently requested Senate hearings on section 1221. (You can see the letter on the Stop the Towers website)Please continue to encourage Senator Casey and others to push for the complete repeal of Section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Specifically here in Pennsylvania, please contact Senator Specter (contact info below) and encourage him to support a complete repeal of the above Act. Senator Specter did sign Senator Casey’s letter asking for the hearings and he is listening. But we must contact him and tell him our concerns because you can be sure the utility industry lobbyists are talking with him every chance they get. If he is not hearing from us, how is he to know what we are going experiencing? Please email the Senator now. We need him on our side! Senator Arlen Specter - United States Senator
Pittsburgh Office: Washington Office:
Regl. Entrprs. Twr. 711 Hart Building 425 6th Ave- Suite 1450 Washington, D.C. 20510 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Phone: (202) 224-4254 Phone: (412) 644-3400 Fax: (412) 644-4871 Website: specter.senate.gov
Pittsburgh Office Staff Members _Marybeth_McGowan@specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:Marybeth_McGowan@specter.senate.gov) _stan_caldwell@specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:stan_caldwell@specter.senate.gov)
_adam_pope@specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:adam_pope@specter.senate.gov)
Stop the Towers!
For more information, go to _http://www.stopthetowers.org/_ (http://www.stopthetowers.org/) . If you feel you have received this email in error or no longer wish to receive messages from Stop the Towers, a grassroots organization dedicated to stopping the AP TrAIL, please reply to this email with REMOVE in the subject line.
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