| By Bob Weaver
While developers say they are "fully committed" to the $2 billion dollar PATH power project, they admit that power demand forecasts indicate less of a need than predicted.
Mark Nitowski says PATH developers have asked the WV Public Service Commission to delay a formal hearing on the project for six months while they review the most recent power load forecast.
PATH is a Goliath 765-kilo-volt power generating system that extends 275 miles. It would deliver electricity to the eastern seaboard, using a coal-driven plant in Putnam County, with huge towers and wires that would stretch across several WV counties, including Calhoun and regional counties.
Seventy Calhoun properties would be affected.
Opponents say PATH would increase pollution in the Mountain State, with state residents bearing some of the costs.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission, this month, is urging commissioners to throw out an application to build the PATH power line, saying that less-expensive alternatives should be considered first.
PSC staff attorneys also argue that alternatives might be less environmentally damaging and that it's "ludicrous" for the commission to move forward with the PATH project without fully examining other options.
"The commission does not have all the information it needs to properly evaluate this project and reasonable alternatives," PSC staff lawyers said in a recent filing.
Nitowski said "This (report) shows that the forecasted load is lower than they had been previously indicated and it's basically due to the economy...They don't expect the economy to pick up as much as previously."
Approval for the project is also being sought in Virginia and Maryland. Nitowski says the developers will ask for delays in those states.
The project's critics have long maintained there's no major need for the energy the line will produce.
Nitowski says the fundamental long-term need for PATH remains "unchanged."
The evidentiary hearing on the project would be moved to Oct. 2011, with a final decision not coming until early Feb. 2012.
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