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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) 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
adam_pope@specter.senate.gov
Stop the Towers!
For more information, go to 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
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