StopPATH WV

From the SCC press release
    Yesterday (Jan. 27) the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) dismissed the case in which PATH Allegheny Virginia Transmission Corporation was seeking approval to build the Virginia portion of the proposed PATH high voltage transmission line. The SCC granted PATH’s motion to withdraw its application and terminate the proceeding. The segments in Virginia were part of a high-voltage line planned from the existing Amos substation near St. Albans, West Virginia to a new substation at Kemptown near New Market, Maryland.

Should the company re-apply in Virginia, the SCC directed that, in addition to the other requirements attendant to a transmission line application, any future application must include information regarding:

• PJM Interconnection’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plans of 2010 or later and PJM’s 2010 or later Reliability Pricing Model auction.
• Updated load flow analyses in the form requested for this case (which showed no need for the PATH line in 2014).
• An analysis of changes in circumstances, including changes in generation, demand response, and energy efficiency resources.
• The PATH Project’s original routes (including routes that do not impact Virginia) consistent with the information provided regarding other proposed and alternative routes.
  
  This is good news - but we can't let our guard down. In newspaper articles today about the dismissal, PATH representatives are saying the application will be resubmitted in the third quarter of this year (July-August-September time frame). This clearly puts the lie to their argument in Maryland that they're trying to get all three states on the same procedural calendar, but it means it's not dead.
  
  We owe a great deal of thanks to the dedicated opponents in Virginia, and the expert witnesses for the Sierra Club, Earth Justice, and the SCC staff, who did such great work!
  
  Now attention will turn to Maryland, where that state's Public Service Commission has not yet decided if it will accept the OLD "new" PATH application (all the original need arguments, so thoroughly discredited in the Virginia case, wrapped into a new application).
  

The VA State Corporation Commission (SCC) is weighing the recommendation of its hearing examiner in early January to allow PATH to withdraw its application there. Following oral arguments Dec. 30 on PATH's request to withdraw, the hearing examiner attached possible conditions to his recommendation, including a requirement that any new PATH application include the most up-to-date forecasts incorporating demand response programs, energy efficiency, any changes in generation capability (new plants added, old ones closed), and more information on routing decisions.

This is noteworthy because PATH was forced to file an amended motion to withdraw in late December; the amended motion included PATH's acknowledgement that PJM (the regional organization that blesses all such projects) has started making new need forecasts based on better information, and has already concluded that PATH will NOT be needed in 2014!

Here’s a link to the amended motion, so you can read it for yourselves:
http://calhounpowerline.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/pathamendmotionwithdraw.pdf

What does this mean for PATH in West Virginia?

IF Virginia either dismisses the application or allows PATH to withdraw it, it raises interesting questions about the project in West Virginia. After all, in the current design there’s no way to get from West Virginia to Maryland without crossing Virginia. And if they try to reconfigure the route to avoid Virginia, (a) they might very well have to file a new application anyhow, since it would be such a significant change, and (b) they’d have a VERY hard time arguing the project is needed in these two states when they already acknowledged in Virginia that it’s not needed. But stranger things have happened …

Anyhow, it’s very possible that we’ll know the Virginia SCC’s decision in the next few days.

Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers flowing!