****National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Call to Action****

Please call Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd next week and ask them to sign
onto a letter requesting oversight hearings on National Interest Electric Transmission
Corridor Designation (the letter is attached). The Department of Energy has
designated 42 of 55 counties in West Virginia as part of the Mid-Atlantic NIETC.
Within this area, an interstate transmission line applicant has access to federal
eminent domain to site the line. NIETC could be used to site the TrAILCo/Dominion
transmission line in West Virginia.

Please ask your Senators to join Senators Casey, Whitehouse and Biden in asking
the Energy & Natural Resources Committee to hold hearings on this flawed policy.

Senator Rockefeller’s DC office: (202)224-6472

Senator Byrd’s DC office: (202)224-3954

For more information, please contact Liese Dart at (202)857-6982
or by email at ldart@pecva.org.

What is NIETC Designation?

Sec. 1221 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act provided the Department of Energy the discretion
to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC) in areas of the United States
that are found to be electrically congested. If a project lies within an NIETC, a utility may appeal an
unfavorable state decision to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for use of federal eminent
domain to site the project. Despite receiving over 2,000 comments against the designations, the
Department of Energy designated two corridors on October 5, 2007. The first NIETC’s encompass
portions of 10 states, 220 counties and impact more than 72 million people. The Department of Energy
failed to conduct an alternatives analysis or to consult with the affected states prior to these designations,
both requirements of Sec. 1221. Although this policy could be used to provide long distance transmission
access to our nation’s developing wind and solar facilities, the Department of Energy has not designated
areas of the country that are identified as having significant renewable resources. The Mid-Atlantic
NIETC designation will increase transmission infrastructure to coal-fired generation built prior to the
1972 Clean Air Act, facilities that lie outside of the EPA’s non-attainment area for air quality.
These investments in unnecessary interstate transmission will make cleaner alternatives such as
efficiency and demand response technologies less economically viable. Eight of the ten states in
the first NIETC designations have filed Petitions for Rehearing against the Department of Energy’s
final decision.

Liese Dart

Special Projects Assistant

Piedmont Environmental Council

Phone: (202)857-7982

Cell: (202)431-8606

Fax: (540)349-9003

ldart@pecva.org

www.pecva.org