| MAP SHOWS LINE NEAR CALHOUN
By Bob Weaver
The company that operates the mid-Atlantic electricity grid is likely to endorse two major new power transmission lines.
The larger of the lines would span about 300 miles, originating at American Electric's John Amos coal-fired power plant near St. Albans, stretching through central West Virginia's scenic Allegheny Highlands to Maryland.
It would carry 765 kilovolts, the highest-voltage power line in use.
The transmission would then switch to twin 500-kilovolt lines for a trip through rural central Maryland to a substation to be built near Damascus, Md.
The giant transmission line would be built by Columbus, Ohio-based AEP and Allegheny Energy Inc. of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and is one leg of a larger, $3 billion project proposed last year by AEP to ultimately extend into New Jersey.
The new transmission lines would relieve existing lines on the densely populated eastern seaboard, including some that are expected to become overloaded as early as 2012.
The lines could also help bring surplus electricity from Appalachia and the Midwest to big east coast cities where power is more expensive.
There are only rough estimates of the paths the lines could take.
With other power grids under consideration, there is opposition from landowners, elected officials and conservation groups.
A 240 mile line from southwestern Pennsylvania to growing northern Virginia has been met with steep resistance.
"We call into question the real need for any of these lines," said Jeff Schmidt of the Sierra Club, which is backing efforts in Congress to repeal the government's power to designate critical transmission corridors.
The Sierra Club's main opposition to the giant transmission line is that the project rewards dirtier power sources at the expense of efforts to conserve energy and use more power from cleaner sources, such as wind.
See also Transmission Line Map
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