in this issue - Electricity Today Magazine

EDITORIAL
The U.S. Department of Energy said
let there be light, announcing that the
federal government could override state
and local opposition to power line construction
along the eastern seaboard.
The DOE stated that Virginia,
Washington, D.C. and six other states are
now part of a designated mid-Atlantic
corridor, where electricity congestion is a
significant problem.
The corridor is one of two National
Interest Electric Transmission Corridors
where the federal government can override
local opposition to power line construction.
The other corridor consists of
California and Arizona.
The Secretary of Energy Samuel W.
Bodman has encouraged utilities to take
prompt action, stating that “the goal is
simple – to keep reliable supplies of electric
energy flowing to all Americans.”
For Dominion, the ruling could be
insurance for a recent state application to
build a high-voltage line from West
Virginia to Loudoun County, Virginia.
That application is currently under
review by the Virginia State Corporation
Commission. If the SCC rejects
Dominion’s application – and this
appears unlikely – they could apply to
FERC for approval to build the line.
Opponents of the corridors have testified
at a spring DOE hearing that such
corridors make the state process of
applying for transmission lines irrelevant.
Robert Lazaro, a spokesman for the
Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC),
envisions utilities importing coal electricity
through these corridors in places
that won’t receive the power. The PEC
has gone on the record to reject the
Dominion proposal, lobbying instead for
increased efficiency over new power
lines. Local politicians claim that the
DOE has gone ahead in spite of public
opposition to the corridors; the DOE
states that it considered more than 2,000
comments from 60 public hearings held
across the country.
6
PLACING POWER IN THE NATIONAL
INTEREST
By Don Horne, Editor
The fears are that utilities will begin
clear-cutting through neighbourhoods
and historically significant lands, ignoring
the new smart technologies for conservation
that are becoming available.
In the case of Dominion, they point
to an immediate need to meet demand
that could plunge the region into blackouts
unless a new transmission network
is put in place now.
Maryland, having faced record electric
rate increases following the move to
deregulation, is pleased with the DOE
order.
In fact, the current transmission
shortfall for that state will result in even
higher rates for Maryland residents, with
a strong possibility of brownouts during
peak usage times.
The pair of new power lines proposed
in the corridor would increase
transmission capability by 7,500
megawatts.
The renewed push to create more
transmission corridors has generated the
expected amount of opposition from
environmental groups and residents
wanting to look out their windows at
green fields and thick forests instead of
giant towers and transmission lines.
For local councils and state legislators,
it is hard to ignore their constituents’
pleas to keep their neighbourhoods
intact. It is their votes that keep
them in power.
Thankfully, the Department of
Energy has removed this large stumbling
block to the construction of new transmission
corridors, shifting the responsibility
from these elected officials to the
federal body. Simply put, the state representatives
can say, “Don’t blame us,
blame the DOE.”
Admittedly, if given the choice, anyone
would prefer to look out their window
at nature’s untouched beauty instead
of a steel current of megavoltage flowing
by their home. But the same could be
said about the large interstate highways
that are vital to the flow of commerce in
the nation.
The miles of asphalt aren’t pretty to
look at, but they are necessary. And no
less necessary to keeping the engines of
commerce humming are these new transmission
corridors.
Electricity Today