StopPATH WV

It's getting harder and harder to get that lid off the PATH zombie's coffin.

Read about Dominion's power plant-building program, part of a state plan to become more energy independent through the building of $4B of new generation over the next 4 years. 

Who needs PATH?

The DOE recently requested comments on Obama's Rapid Response Transmission Team ("er-tit," as Bill has coined it).  Some of these comments are just plain funny (try not to giggle at EEI's desperation), but AEP's comments revise history!

AEP trots out the predictable, tired, 16-year odyssey of their badly planned Jacksons Ferry - Wyoming Project as an example of the "broken" transmission siting process.  There was nothing wrong with the siting process, the project's problems stemmed from AEP's poor planning, as Bill has aptly demonstrated.

But, here's the biggest lie:

"The delays experienced with the Wyoming-Jacksons Ferry line were so pronounced that AEP has since avoided crossing federal lands in siting projects."

Well, except for their PATH Project, which came AFTER Jacksons Ferry-Wyoming.  AEP didn't seem to have a problem siting that thing through a national forest and three national park units, did they?  They didn't even seem to have a problem with PATH's federal EIS process, until the NPS denied their request for indefinite abeyance of the process and tossed out PATH's application.  Now the federal permitting process is broken and AEP can re-write history.

AEP also presents a few nifty timelines showing how a proper transmission planning, permitting, siting and construction process should work.  It's pretty hard not to notice that right of entry onto private property for surveying purposes only begins AFTER the project receives state approval.  Remember all the trespassing and landowner harassment by PATH contractors doing "surveys" before they'd received a permit?  And check it out... initial contacts with identified landowners to negotiate rights-of-way and purchase begins at least six months AFTER the project receives state approval!  What the heck is PATH doing with millions of dollars of unneeded property and purchase options on their hands right now, after they voluntarily withdrew from the state approval process, and while their project dangles from the cliff of abandonment?  Seems to me if they'd waited to purchase needed property until AFTER receiving state approvals, as their own ideal plan dictates, us ratepayers could have saved well over a hundred million dollars in imprudent land purchases and options (plus 12.4% interest compounded yearly for 4 years) upon which PATH seems to have jumped the gun.  In 2011, PATH tossed away over $2.5M of YOUR money on forfeited purchase options that they removed from CWIP and expensed (but that's another topic - come back tomorrow to see how PATH wasted your money in 2011, I'm still crunching the numbers.)

AEP's project timeline is one for the scrapbooks...

See letter from the National Park Service to PATH's attorney denying PATH's request for another "extension" of the EIS process and therefore denying PATH's permit, without prejudice.  So ends our involvement with the NPS, for now.  I'm sure Morgan will miss us!  :-)

PATH's latest failure is dated February 27.  NPS failed to make this information public until just recently, and credit goes to John for digging this up during a webpage drive-by.  This information was NOT on the NPS's project website as recently as March 15, when StopPATH sent this letter to the NPS.  Now we find that the decision had already been made before we wrote the letter.  Despite the fact that the EIS process is supposed to be "open" and must consider park-owning citizen input, there sure was a bunch of secretive stuff going on that the public wasn't allowed to monitor.  The NPS, their contractor for the project (and we found out that there had been a mysterious switch of contractors after the initial scoping process), and the PATH Companies carried on the EIS process in secret, for the most part, and the only way for the citizen stakeholders to get information was through a tortured process of making themselves continual pests and/or going through the FOIA process.   Notice to the public of the application's process was sparse, with information appearing months later without notice, and requiring another round of the "Kremlinology" game we've been playing with entities supposedly working in our interest. The NPS needs to spruce up their sunshine.  It sucks.

So...  okay... Woo Hoo!  Go back to start, do not pass "Go," PATH!  Not that they really care anymore, PATH is a dead project.  The only place PATH still walks upright is at FERC, where they continue to rack up "costs necessary to maintain the project in its current state" that come out of ratepayers' pockets.  C'mon, let's get to the abandonment already!

I was going to just update my previous post, but you simply shouldn't miss reading CAKES's 2012 National Electric Transmission Congestion Study Comments.

'Nuff said.  Go.  Read.

Check out what Bill Howley dug up over at The Power Line.  It seems that a WV landowner is annoyed at PATH and the developer he bought property from that, unbeknown to him, PATH was planning to plow right through it.  The developer claims that it was also unaware about PATH until after the sale.

PATH is represented by the odious and insufferable shysters from Jackson Kelly that were so much fun during the PATH CPCN case in West Virginia.  The sophomoric haranguing of opponents that floats Jackson Kelly schmuck Melick's boat comes through loud and clear.

Q.    Did -- did anybody at PATH try to force you to sell property to them at this time?
A.    No.
MR. BOWLES:    I'm going to object to the form of the question. What does "force" mean? It's not clear.
MR. MELICK:    That's an English word.
Q.    (By Mr. Melick) Did anybody -- if you don't understand the question, I'll -- I'll explain it to....

Honestly, what a dipstick.  But once you get over the vaudeville going on, reading PATH's feeble lies is interesting, in a train wreck sort of way.  For instance, the Melick-clown keeps trying to insist that had the developer properly recorded the subdivision with the county that PATH would have avoided crossing through a subdivision.  Hahahahahahahaaa!  I seem to remember PATH's original route marching through my own subdivision (properly recorded in 1981) with such severity that 16 out of 31 existing homes would have been gone.  And then there was PATH's arrogant assertion to the owners of  these homes, at their dog & pony show, that these homes in the way would simply be torn down and disposed of.  Way to go, fellas!  :-)

So what? Even if the developer didn't record the subdivision properly, it's not going to win PATH any brownie points.

If you're one of the thousands of landowners who still has PATH's "suspended" project looming over your property, this might be a case worth following.

In the wake of Judge Dwyer's affirmation of Frederick County, Maryland's, Board of Zoning Appeals denial of a special exception for PATH's  gigantic substation last month, PATH had 30 days to file further appeals.  The deadline quietly passed at the end of last week, with no further whiny filings from PATH.  They've finally shut up about it, at long last!  Break out the ale!

Is this another indication that PATH is precariously perched on the precipice of abandonment?  C'mon, let's get on with it!  No time like the present.

March 28 addendum:  We now have "official" quotes from PATH stating that it will not file further appeals.

Although PATH's talking head claims that PATH's "rationale" (when has PATH ever made a rational decision?) for the decision is "confidential," it's more than obvious.  Contentious federal abandonment hearings, where PATH will have to prove the prudence of its expenditures, are starting to become more of a certain reality to the companies.  

One of the incentives that the PATH Project was granted by FERC way back in 2008 was a guarantee for recovery of 100% of prudently incurred investment in the event the project is abandoned.  PATH hopes to recover their approximately $140M investment in the project from ratepayers in 13 states over an as yet undetermined number of years (for their TrAILCo project, they suggested 49).

When PJM put the PATH Project "in abeyance" last February 28, continued costly appeals on the substation decision were no longer prudent.
"As we've discussed on numerous occasions, the proposed PATH Project, including the proposed Kemptown Substation, remains in suspension at the direction of PJM. Potomac Edison will consider its options for constructing the Kemptown Substation if the PATH Project should be re-activated by PJM," Meyers wrote.
If continued legal appeals are no longer prudent, PATH's first appeal to Circuit Court was not prudent either, since it occurred after the "suspension."

PATH has been spending your money willy-nilly on whatever they thought would foster the influence they would need to ram this project through state approvals.  They never thought they would be challenged on their expenditures, or that their project could fail.  Now they're left "holding the bucket" and this particular bucket is not full of water, electricity or money.  It's chock full of something rather pungent...

PJM finally made the 2011 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan available online today.  It's 5 "books" of silly stuff that's going to take a long while (and a lot of coffee) to get through.  PATH will continue to be "held in abeyance" in 2012.  No surprise there.  Just another $13M of profit for the PATH companies this year that will be paid for by you while the project continues to sit on a shelf.  Here's the PATH money quote:

PATH Abeyance
Analysis performed during the 2010 RTEP cycle required an in service date of June 1, 2015 for the PATH Line as shown on Map 1.3. The PJM Board issued a statement on February 28, 2011, suspending the PATH line.
PJM staff performed an updated analysis based on the 2011 RTEP assumptions that included Generation Deliverabilty; and Load Deliverability for the following LDA’s: MAAC, Southwest MAAC, Eastern MAAC, PEPCO and Dominion. Additional analysis performed on a 2017 study year case with 2011 RTEP assumptions examined the impacts on the PATH abeyance from Warren Generation, Global Insights load forecast, RPS, at risk generation and State DSR/EE goals. 2011 RTEP analysis suggests that the need for the PATH line has moved several years beyond 2015. Based on these analyses the PJM Board has decided to continue to hold the project in abeyance and requested that the transmission owners suspend development activities. Furthermore the PJM Board has directed staff to perform additional analysis using the 2012 RTEP assumptions and incorporating May RPM base residual auction results.

In honor of this momentous occasion, the li'l Coalfella has dug up some of his trademark stupid comments, just for you:

WV Metro News reports,
"Our energy delivery to customers still remains below 2008 levels,” Colafella told MetroNews. “You're really looking at a situation that's different today than when PATH was originally proposed."

PJM has continued to research the PATH project for the last year, getting updates to determine if things are changing. At this point, Colafella says the answer is "no."

"The landscape today is really no different than where we were a year ago,” he said. “Supply really continues to exceed demand on the electric grid."

Colafella says First Energy and Appalachian Power are following the lead of PJM.

"The companies are not moving forward with the project,” he said. “At this point there aren't any activities that are underway."

Except for that collection of $13M out of your wallet this year.  Li'l Coalfella forgot that "activity."

Looks like our li'l Coalfella isn't so hopeful about his little PATH Project anymore.  Compare the above with the stupid comments he made last year:

"'The investment we’ve already made won’t be lost though, because the project is not lost — just suspended,' Colafella said."

The project is lost.  Get on with the abandonment before your $140M investment is "lost" too.  We're not going away until you do.

Despite PJM's lingering uncertainty about the PATH Project, it's deader than dead at FirstEnergy.  In today's Q4 2011 Earnings Call shindig in New York (which YOU get to pay for in your electric bill), there was no mention of PATH in any discussion of their transmission plans. 

In fact, FE seems to have lost their taste for big joint venture projects like PATH entirely:  "...one thing I don't see in our future is investing in large scale transmission projects outside of our utility footprint. We plan to stay close to home, make investments that have high certainty of completion and transparency as far as financial returns."

It's probably a good thing, considering:

"The skill sets acquired from Allegheny on transmission siting and construction will also be invaluable going forward as future projects are completed."

Well, based on Allegheny's "skill sets" utilized in trying to site the PATH Project, good luck with that, FE!  It's just too bad about any future transmission projects you may undertake with those morons "applying best practices."  They got thoroughly trounced by a tri-state coalition of ordinary citizens.  They're just not the brightest bulbs in the string...

FirstEnergy doesn't even seem to understand why Allegheny was interested in the PATH Project in the first place:

"We aren't sure on the reasons for investing in Transmission either."

It was all about the money, boys!

If you want to download the slides, you can find them here.

As promised yesterday, here is Judge Dwyer's Order affirming the Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals denial of PATH's application for the gigantic terminus substation.

Judge Dwyer found that the BZA committed no legal errors in their denial.  He did not, as PATH had hoped he would, attempt to second-guess the BZA or make any decision on whether the Special Exception should have been permitted by the Board.

"The Board utilized the substantial evidence presented to it, along with the arguments of those involved, as well as the Board's own personal knowledge stemming from a site visit to the proposed location to reach its conclusion. The substantial evidence before the Board rendered the issue fairly debatable, being sufficient enough to allow reasonable persons to reach different conclusions on the issue. Therefore, the Board's conclusion that the use of the subject property as proposed is not consistent with the purpose and intent of the Comprehensive Plan is not to be disturbed."

Some may have thought the BZA was being too tough on citizens during the marathon hearings, however the Board's actions were fair and kept strictly within the law, and that dogged adherence to the letter of the law is the basis for Judge Dwyer's decision.

"The Board's decision, denying Petitioner's special exception application, is supported by legally sufficient evidence. The Board properly considered all of the statutory factors required by the Code. There was sufficient evidence presented to make the grant or denial of the special exception fairly debatable. Therefore, the Court will not disturb the Board's ruling absent a showing of fraud. No showing of fraud has been alleged and therefore the Board's ruling, which is supported by legally sufficient evidence, should be affirmed."

Apparently size did matter to Judge Dwyer, too:

"Put simply the proposed substation is huge; it is larger than the size of the Pentagon building and measures approximately the length of 32 football fields, with towers that are higher than the Statue of Liberty."

This makes the fourth resounding defeat for PATH in Frederick County, Maryland.  PATH made a really stupid decision to attempt to site the terminus in a county with zoning laws.  The company needs to come to grips with their stupidity and discontinue this farce of continuing, lengthy and expensive appeals for a project that is no longer needed.  It costs PATH nothing to continue to legally harass and attempt to financially break the PATH opposition groups in Frederick County.  All of PATH's legal costs are recoverable through their FERC Formula Rate as capital expenditures earning 12.4% return yearly.  However, PATH knows that its project is heading like greased lightning toward a contentious federal abandonment battle where they must prove that their expenditures were prudent.  There is no prudence in continuing this pointless battle.  Any other prudently-run business would fold their hand at this point.

We all owe a big "thank you" to the leadership of CAKES and Sugarloaf Conservancy, who not only did a superb job presenting their case before the BZA, but also had to contend with ensuring that their legal professionals were fully funded throughout this long, drawn out battle.  You guys deserve a medal!

Victory... how sweet it is!

This just in, with details to follow:

The Frederick County (MD) Circuit Court has affirmed the decision of the county Board of Appeals, which means that they agree with the findings of the county's zoning board -- the "Kemptown" substation does not belong in the middle of 1350 homes.

Congratulations to Sugarloaf Conservancy, CAKES and their attorneys!  Very well done!  Thanks for all your hard work!

So, what will PATH do now?  Will they waste more of our money taking this to the next level?  While PATH panics and postures, how about a toast to the power of citizen action?