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According to an article in today's Charleston Daily Mail, current West Virginia Governor and wanna-be Senator Joe Manchin has amassed quite the campaign war chest.  FEC filings reveal that Manchin's biggest financiers are energy companies and coal companies.  That's really no surprise to anyone, is it?  Joe's been owned for years.  Guess which energy companies' PAC, executives, their spouses and relatives and legal counsel are trying to buy Joe's seat? American Electric Power, First Energy and Jackson Kelly. Wow, what a shocker, right?

Check out the individual donor names here.  I see a few names I recognize.... Anthony Alexander, CEO of First Energy (soon to merge with Allegheny Energy) makes Senator-buying into a wholesome family event -- isn't that so "Father Knows Best"?  How about Christopher Callas of Jackson Kelly (PATH counsel)?  Or maybe Mark Dempsey of AEP?

Isn't this going to be fun to research?

If I had so much personal wealth that I could afford to toss thousands at a political campaign, I think I'd rather have something sportier that could go from zero to 60 in less than 6 seconds, instead of an easily bought politician who's getting a bit nappy around the edges, but that's just my personal preference.  Unless.... you don't think it's not really their personal money being donated to Manchin, do you?
 
 
We've heard that PATH land agents will be making a big push in Jefferson County in the next month or so to coerce more landowners into signing option or purchase agreements for their properties.


PATH land agents are trained professionals who will attempt to manipulate landowners into signing agreements that are not in their best interests.


Get the information you will need to be the one in control of negotiations with your particular PATH land agent by attending upcoming meetings.  See article in today's Journal about the first meeting and more details here and here.
 
 
Dear PATH,

It's been two years today since I first met you at one of your "Open House" divide & conquer brain-washing sessions.  I knew I despised you from the minute I walked into the room, and my loathing for you has only grown stronger over time.

To hear Jay Ruberto callously describe how he was going to "buy out" the homes of my neighbors in order to make room for his transmission line was disgusting.  To make him repeat it in front of my retired, widowed neighbor who owns one of those houses and see her burst into tears was repugnant.  PATH could have saved themselves a lot of trouble -- I was very explicit with my comment that Ruberto's Machiavellian scheme was NOT going to happen. And, it didn't.  Ah, good times!

However, my neighbor was quickly replaced with other shocked, angry, bewildered and, yes, at times tearful landowners from another part of Jefferson County.  I will not turn my back on them either.  PATH is still NOT going to happen.  Give up.

I've learned so many things that are completely useless for the life I intended to live.  I've learned how the electric transmission system works; I've learned about corporate greed; I've learned how FERC's rate recovery accounting system works; I've learned how to deal with the media; and I've learned enough acronyms to last me three lifetimes.

I've also made a whole bunch of new friends from Jefferson County, other parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, other states being threatened with unneeded transmission lines, and even other countries.  I enjoy meeting these people and hearing their stories.  Each one is unique and real -- more than a dot on a map or a name on a list.  I love what I'm doing!

There are a few things I could do without however.  I wouldn't miss it one bit if my friends quit looking at me with a smirk while discussing past & present strategy and saying, "I'm glad I'm on your side!".  I could do without PATH's lame attempts at intimidation of the opposition.  I would happily do without government corruption and stupidity.  Most of all, I could ecstatically do without PATH.

Two years of my life that I'll never get back -- but definitely two years worth living.


You've got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.  Can't you just die already?


Faithfully waiting for your demise,


Keryn
 
 
Yesterday, counsel for PATH filed a letter with the WV PSC stating that PJM discovered an error in the base case analysis used in the development of the 2010 RTEP.  Read the letter here.

PATH suggests another two-month delay while they cook up new need testimony to be submitted by September 14th. This would push the hearings out to March, 2011, and the decision date to July 29, 2011.

Whatever!  I've been waiting for them to suggest another delay to fix that crap they submitted as the basis for the "need" for PATH on July 8.  Didn't expect that they would panic and ask for a delay so soon, before the case even really gets rolling again. Every time PATH is losing, they will call a delay so that they can have another "do over". How many chances are they going to ask for to try to get it right?  Answer -- as many as necessary!  Interesting that PJM is willing to be their scapegoat this time.  PJM is really stretching themselves thin recommending PATH as the "best and only" alternative to fix long-term grid problems.  In fact, they have already stretched themselves so far that they have ruined their credibility with the public, the regulatory agencies, and their own members as well.

PATH is barely scraping along now -- someone please shoot it and put it out of its misery!
 
 
Is it time again already for the Allegheny Energy Earnings Call bag-o-fun?  Yes, indeed!  All quotes from the Q2 2010 Allegheny Energy Earnings Call   If you're unfamiliar with the earnings call, you're in for a treat!  This is where the power companies (in this case, Allegheny) try to sell themselves to their investors.  Everything is always superb!  Money coming in faster than they can count! Every project going according to plan and every plan on schedule!  Read one to see the way these guys talk so freely out of the other side of their mouth to a different audience.  If PATH wasn't a money-maker, would it even be worth mention in these calls?  Of course not!!

But, here's the $2.1 billion dollar question -- are these investors stupid enough to believe the lies they are told? Of course not!  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the humor comes in!

First, let's have a question from Daniele Seitz – Dudack Research Just a quick one. The PATH transmission line when do you anticipate construction to start and major expenditures would start?

Paul Evanson

Well, we just got the confirmation from PJM that June 1, 2015 is the date that they want it in service, in fact, no later than June 1, 2015. So, we have really focused a lot now on our filings or state filings.

Daniele Seitz – Dudack Research

So you don’t anticipate much expenditures for the near term? It will start in a year or two?

Paul Evanson

No. There will be some, and I think we have some of that spending laid out I believe in the…

Kirk Oliver

If you look at slide number 40, we have it laid out. I think we’re looking at, Daniele, about $40 million or $50 million this year just to give you an idea.

Paul Evanson

Yes, recently the Roseland line delayed because of the federal sighting, but I can tell you we’ve been very focused and diligent on that right from the beginning, back when the project first came up and we’ve been extremely sensitive to it. It’s very important in terms of sighting and we have it down to like there’s only 2.5 miles within federal boundaries within several boundaries within 276 miles on the entire project, and we’ve started that process back two years ago. So we think that our federal review is on track and shouldn’t cause any delay in meeting that June 1, 2015 date.

Do you think that Danielle already knows exactly when PATH's "need by" date is?  Of course she does.  She's waiting for Evanson to tell her about any anticipated delays or cost issues.  However, everything in Paul's world is going perfectly, despite the real truth that the PATH project is floundering badly and lately looking more like a project being shepherded through approvals by The Three Stooges.  It's like attending one of those glitzy-fake cocktail parties with all "the beautiful people".  In addition, I just can't get the image out of my mind of this in cartoon form, with Mr. Burns playing Evanson and Kirk Oliver as the eternal toadie, Smithers.  When Mr. Burns gets stymied and even Smithers can't feed him anything positive to say, he quite jaggedly changes the subject and begins telling Danielle a fairy tale about PATH's performance on the required Environmental Impact Statement Application (which won't be completed until the fall of 2012, btw).  I wouldn't call what happened several weeks ago in WV, VA & MD "focused and diligent".  Why doesn't Paul tell her that hundreds of citizens showed up in person (none of them in favor of PATH) and many hundreds or thousands more have submitted their comments in writing?  It would probably be akin to dropping a turd in the punch bowl to admit that PATH was caught and exposed for attempting to intimidate citizens at a federal public meeting.  In fact, their performance was so bad, it may have screwed the whole thing up beyond repair.  Don't worry, I'm sure Danielle Seitz of Dudack Research is more than capable of finding these things out on her own. Why else does she consistently ask these PATH questions every time?  Smart Girl!  Danielle knows...

Read more after the break



 
Dear Editor... 08/06/2010
 
There's a bit of a PATH debate going on in The Journal's Letters to the Editor section recently, and it's not over yet because I happen to know there are several more in the queue, so we might as well get started and add the additional ones as they are published.

First, Harley Potter of Kearneysville lights the match (and yes, I've heard all the Potter/Allegheny Power connection stories, but I'm going to ignore them).

August 5 - Keryn Newman responds

August 6 - Sharon Wilson responds

August 18 - Joe Migliorise responds


August 19 - Roger Eitelman responds

Thank you, Mr. Potter, for bringing out your soapbox and allowing us all to have a turn standing on it.
 
 
Here's a new website from the PATHLLC information network.  The video on this website tells a now sadly familiar story to all of us here in West Virginia about having family history destroyed by PATH, environmental injustice and power company intimidation attempts.  This video also has some interesting information about PATH contractor The Louis Berger Group, who did the line routing evaluation and has recently been sneaking through the hills with their walrus & bat nets.  
 
 
Petition to intervene in the Allegheny Energy/First Energy merger case before the West Virginia Public Service Commission has been filed by counsel for Jefferson County Intervenors Group.  

PATH does  not exist in a bubble.  I wonder how interested First Energy would be in Allegheny Energy without the future potential for PATH to rake in the bucks?  Hopefully, we'll soon find out.

Jackson Kelly's (PATH's counsel) response to JCIG's petition to intervene seems a bit vexed, with an undertone of "poor me" undeserved persecution.  Melick even goes so far as to show everyone how the truly evil mind works with a completely unfounded accusation that JCIG is intervening simply to delay the PATH case or to force the applicants into a bargaining situation.  Wouldn't Freud have fun with the transference going on here?  

How many specious arguments can Melick create to try to keep us out of this case?

1.  Our interests are already represented by the Consumer Advocate Division.

The response gathers JCIG members into a group of residential electric customers, despite the fact that the reason for JCIG's intervention is clearly stated in their petition as, "The members of JCIG are concerned about how the merger proposed in this proceeding relates to, or will otherwise impact, the construction and operation of PATH and future transmission facilities."  Nowhere in the petition are residential electric rates mentioned, therefore stating that CAD is already representing JCIG's interests is false.

2.  JCIG's concerns are being adequately handled in the PATH case.

In their response, counsel for joint applicants states that JCIG's concerns "may (or may not) bear on PATH's certification under W. Va. Code 24-2-11a".  Since this same counsel has denied many requests for information in the PATH case as falling in the "may not" camp, I suspect (and they actually imply) that their answer to these requests would be the same.  They reach too far in assigning motives and relevancy to JCIG's concerns... which looks like the scrabbling, death claw of the desperate.

3.  JCIG's concerns are with Federal policy, which the WV PSC has no jurisdiction over.

The classic "do as I say, not as I do".  Joint petitioners are quick in attempts to prevent other parties from raising Federal/PJM/NERC issues, while they use the same as the basis for their "need" argument and continually play the FERC card in an attempt to bully the three state commissions into granting their wishes.  This is the behavior of a petulant child and should be dealt with the same way these bratty, controlling children are disciplined in real life.  Call their bluff and try not to laugh as their supposed "power" fails to materialize!

He did get one part right, however, "Joint Petitioners acknowledge that JCIG members are sincere in their opposition to PATH".  And we're not going away either. But wasn't there a better word in their thesaurus than "sincere"?  I'm truly disappointed by the lack of creativity in the vocabulary used here.

Why is PATH so resistant to answering these questions? How can we feel that this merger will be a good thing for the average electric consumer and a good thing for potential PATH victims when their counsel gets his knickers in a knot over a simple petition to intervene in the case?  Did we hit the tender spot?  Got something to hide?  Maybe this merger is something everyone should object to rather strenuously.


Update:  Just wanted to add this link I was sent regarding First Energy's fault in the 2003 blackout.  We've got links to the bigger report referenced in this article around the website, but this article is short and sweet and worth reading.  "It wasn’t until the lights went out in the First Energy control room that the First Energy personnel had a solid indication that the problem was indeed in their service territory (and not somewhere else)."
 
 
Great post on Calhoun Powerline about Project Mountaineer and transmission expansion.  Remember, Project Mountaineer was a gift to the Ohio Valley, coal-fired generator companies in exchange for choosing to join PJM between 2000 - 2004.  PJM is such a true, blue friend to its powerful members, they continue to use their RTEP as a "vehicle" (Allegheny Energy's word) to advance Project Mountaineer transmission lines.

The "need" for PATH was created with a bunch of robust lies (reliability issues, thermal violations and blackouts, oh my!)  Thanks to PJM's "transparency", the scheme is more than obvious and the stakeholders are starting to get restless.

More trouble for PATH on the horizon.
 
 
Dick Ishler, President of CAKES (Citizens Against Kemptown Electric Substation) and Nick Carrera, Treasurer of Sugarloaf Conservancy will be on WFMD AM 930 tomorrow, July 31, at 9:00 a.m. to talk about PATH. Tune in!