| The East coast has survived another summer without a major blackout.
After years of not improving the electric grid system that powers the East coast, the Bush administration has moved to ensure "nonstop" electricity.
This week the U.S Department of Energy designated large swaths of the Southwest and mid-Atlantic regions as critical to the nation's energy grid.
The agency has announced two special national interest electric transmission corridors, which encompass all or part of 10 states, including West Virginia.
One of the high-wire transmission lines will go from the John Amos power plant in the Kanawha Valley to Maryland, through central West Virginia.
The federal designation is the first use of a new federal power to approve construction of electric lines in some places where state officials have stymied them.
Some lawmakers and community groups argue the government corridors wrongly expand the potential use of eminent domain power. | 
