| PSC limits participation by power line intervenors
More than 250 families or companies have been granted permission to intervene in the state Public Service Commission case that will decide if the $1.8 billion PATH power line is built.
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
wvgazette.com
More than 250 families or companies have been granted permission to intervene in the state Public Service Commission case that will decide if the $1.8 billion PATH power line is built.
But the PSC plans to limit participation by residents in the formal evidentiary hearings scheduled to start early next year.
Individuals who intervene will be required to take part only through "county intervenor groups" for the county where they live. The PSC is urging each county group to hire a lawyer, and groups that don't must appoint a spokesperson.
"While the commission is hesitant to limit the participation of parties in hearings in this case, given the nature of and extent of the number of intervenors without legal counsel, the commission is convinced that limitation is absolutely necessary in order to have a reasonable opportunity to conduct a fair and expeditious hearing on the matters at issue," the commission said.
Late Tuesday, the commissioners issued a 22-page order to rule on a variety of pending procedural issues in the case. Commissioners have also scheduled a status hearing for Monday, and moved the event to the Culture Center to accommodate a large number of participants.
American Electric Power and Allegheny Power want to build the 765-kilovolt power line, which would stretch for 280 miles across more than a dozen West Virginia counties, from near the John Amos Power Plant to Frederick County, Md.
Promoters dubbed the project the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline, or PATH.
In general, the proposed route runs across northern Kanawha County and through parts of Roane and Calhoun counties, before running across the middle of Braxton County north of Sutton. From there, the proposed route turns northeast across Upshur and Barbour counties. Then, it turns east and cuts across Tucker County and the northern edge of the Monongahela National Forest, and then across Grant, Hardy and Hampshire counties. The proposed route crosses into Virginia before coming back across Jefferson County south of Charles Town, and then on east into Maryland.
Power company officials said the project is needed to shore up the nation's ailing electrical grid and, as proposed, "minimizes the effect on the natural and human environment."
But the project faces strong opposition, in part because PSC approval would allow the power company to use eminent domain to obtain rights-of-way from landowners. Other critics also say that PATH, like the already approved TrAIL power line, is little more than a huge extension cord to allow more pollution-causing coal-fired power to be sent from Appalachia and the Ohio Valley to East Coast population centers.
PATH has been in the works for years, but formal applications for PSC approval were not filed until mid-March. The project also needs approval from regulators in Virginia and Maryland.
In West Virginia, the Sierra Club and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy have announced opposition to PATH and granted intervenor status in Tuesday's PSC ruling. County commissioners from Barbour, Braxton, Jefferson, Lewis, Tucker and Upshur counties have also intervened. So has a coalition of industries that are major electric users and the state Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents unionized construction workers.
Commissioners have said they will hold a series of public hearings this fall on PATH, and noted in Tuesday's order that residents with concerns can also file comments as protesters. But residents can formally introduce evidence and question witnesses only by intervening to become parties to the case, the PSC said.
Under the PSC's current schedule, public hearings in the affected areas would be held sometime in September or October. Formal evidentiary hearings would start Feb. 8, 2010, and run through Feb. 23.
The legal deadline for the commission to issue its decision is June 21, 2010.
Before it can approve the project, the PSC must confirm that the power line "will economically, adequately, and reliably contribute to meeting the present and anticipated requirements for electric power of the customers served ... and desirable for present and anticipated reliability of service for electric power for its service area or region."
State law also says the PSC must determine if the project "will result in an acceptable balance between reasonable power needs and reasonable environmental factors."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
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