Recently, the PATH Companies have requested that the National Park Service continue to hold their application to cross the Appalachian Trail, Harpers Ferry National Park and the C&O Canal in continued abeyance indefinitely. We are watching this development and will let you know when it is time to take action on the PATH EIS application.
In a separate but related matter, we are asking you to please take two minutes out of your busy day to let the National Park Service know what you think about the outrageous $30M mitigation package offered by Public Service Gas & Electric (NJ) and PPL Electric Utilities (PA) in exchange for the Park Service issuing them a permit to cross the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Trail with their Susquehanna-Roseland 500kV transmission project. This matters to us because it is part of the ongoing attempt by utility companies to find ways to assert corporate influence over citizen interests, inflate project costs to ratepayers, and sets a dangerous precedent for other EIS evaluations. Just as PATH was an unneeded, profiteering boondoggle, so is Susquehanna-Roseland.
Back in November, the Park Service recommended No Action as the environmentally preferred alternative response to the Susquehanna-Roseland application. This would result in a denial of the application. In reply, the power companies offered to purchase at least $30M of inferior land adjacent to the current park and donate it to the Park Service or other environmental/conservation groups. They contend that this will somehow mitigate the new 200 – 380 ft. wide right-of-way and 195 ft. tall towers plowing through some of the most scenic vistas in the existing park.
A deal is rumored to have been worked out between corporate lobbyists and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Park Service Director Jon Jarvis. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said, The Secretary and the Director have unofficially committed to the companies that the NPS will select Alternative 2, the alternative preferred by the companies but which is the most damaging to the resources and scenery of the parks.
In addition, the cost of the $30M mitigation package will be added to the cost of the transmission project that will be recovered from all electric consumers in the PJM Region in their monthly electric bills for the next 50 years. The power companies will also earn a 12.93 percent profit every year on the cost of their $30M inducement. The effect of this is that you will pay for mitigation of damage caused to your park by corporations who will see profit on the cost of the mitigation paid for by you. Private, for-profit corporations are using YOUR money to bribe a federal agency to squander YOUR national parks!
We ask that you let the National Park Service know what you think about the proposition of the power companies by submitting your comments on the Environmental Impact Statement (instructions below). Comments will close on January 31, so your immediate action is needed! We also encourage you to forward and share this with all your friends via email, facebook or other social networking. To read more details about the situation, visit http://www.stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog.html or http://calhounpowerline.com/
To comment, visit the Susquehanna-Roseland Park Service Comment Form, http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=220&projectID=25147&documentID=44314 to quickly and easily submit your comments to the Park Service online. Below is suggested text to be copied and pasted into the comments field, but as always, we encourage you to edit and personalize your message.
Suggested text: As a citizen stakeholder of our national parks and an electric consumer in the PJM Interconnection region responsible for the cost of the Susquehanna Roseland transmission line project, I wholeheartedly support the No Action environmentally preferred Alternative 1 recommended in the draft EIS.
It is unconscionable that the National Park Service would even consider the mitigation package offered by the applicants in return for approving their application to spoil several of our national parks. The transmission line will severely and permanently alter the park. We can never recover a natural resource that is thoughtlessly squandered in pursuit of corporate profit.
In addition, I strongly object to the National Park Service accepting a $30M inducement from for-profit corporations in exchange for permission to lay waste to a public asset, held in trust by the NPS for the benefit of all citizens. The cost of mitigation will become the financial responsibility of myself and the 61 million other electric consumers in the PJM Interconnection region via cost allocation of the transmission rate for this project, which was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The $30M price of mitigation offered to the Park Service will be added to the cost of the transmission project, which will be reimbursed by ratepayers to the applicants over the next 50 years. In addition, the corporate investment in the transmission line will earn them a 12.93% return on the depreciating value of the mitigation package, and other assets, for each and every one of those 50 years. This proposed use of money out of my pocket to mitigate damage to my park caused by corporations, who earn a profit on this damage, is ludicrous.
I encourage the NPS to select Alternative 1 in the final EIS. Our precious, dwindling natural resources should never be for sale to the highest corporate bidder.
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