Feds push forward with power line
plan for mid-Atlantic, Southwest states
Mar 6, 2008 - By Devlin Barrett
- The Associated Press
New power line construction is more
likely in the mid-Atlantic states and the Southwest
after the government on Thursday said it was pushing
ahead with a plan to expand and modernize the electric
grid in those areas.
The U.S. Department of Energy formally
denied requests for a rehearing of a previous decision
making it easier to build power lines in the designated
areas, saying challenges by those who oppose new line
construction were meritless.
The Energy Department has designated
two "National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors"
over the objections of many local and state officials.
Local groups often resist such proposed
lines in their communities, saying they are ugly and
unnecessary and diminish the quality of life. Advocates
for the corridor law say it's necessary to avoid future
blackouts. The nation's energy grid, they say, is
aging too rapidly to meet the rising demand for electricity.
The federal government's mid-Atlantic
power corridor runs from Virginia and Washington,
D.C., north to include most of Maryland, all of New
Jersey and Delaware and large sections of New York,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The Southwest corridor consists of seven
counties in Southern California and three in Arizona.
In deciding to go forward with the two
corridors, the department issued a statement Thursday
saying the findings of energy congestion in the areas
"are well-founded and based on data and studies."
Under a 2005 energy law passed by Congress,
the federal government can approve new power transmission
lines within the corridors if states and regional
groups fail to build such lines. The law was passed
partly in response to the 2003 blackout left 50 million
people in southern Ontario and parts of the northeastern
United States without power.
In that event, a failure on transmission
lines in Ohio set off a chain reaction that knocked
the Canadian province of Ontario off the power grid,
along with parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
The corridor designations may increase
pressure on state regulators to grant permits to private
industry to build new lines. Utilities have complained
that state authorities are reluctant to approve new
lines, often because of local opposition.
If state authorities do not approve
any construction after a year, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, or FERC, may intervene and
approve a grid project if the new line is deemed necessary
to satisfy national power needs. Such approvals could,
in theory, include the use of eminent domain law to
compel private owners to sell their property.
The FERC has had such authority for
years in considering applications for gas lines, but
this is the first time it will also be available for
electricity transmission, officials said. The new
law does not give the FERC eminent domain power over
state or federal lands.
In New York, local community activists,
preservationists, and environmentalists are fighting
a proposal to run a line nearly 200 miles from the
center of the state toward populous New York City
suburbs. Local lawmakers have vowed to fight the plan
in Congress and in the courts.
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On the Net:
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