The Frederick County, Maryland, Board of Zoning Appeals finally completed the hearing process on PATH's application for a special exception to construct their gigantic substation in Mt. Airy during a marathon 13-hour session on Saturday.  Because of the amount of written testimony and evidence submitted on Saturday, the Board did not issue a decision at the conclusion of the hearing.  They were probably as tired as the rest of us last night at 10 p.m.!  The Board will issue its decision this coming Thursday, November 18, at 7:00 p.m. during one of it's regularly scheduled meetings.  The meeting will be held in Winchester Hall, 12 E. Church Street, Frederick, MD, and the public is welcome to attend, even those who don't reside in Frederick County.  Let's pack the house again, folks!

Due to other commitments, we were late to arrive at Saturday's hearing and missed the great formal presentations by the groups Citizens Against the Kemptown Electric Substation (CAKES), Sugarloaf Conservancy and the Sierra Club.  When we arrived in the late afternoon, they were well into general public comment.  The amount of well thought out argument, research and salient points covered by the citizens of Frederick County continues to amaze me!  Everyone who spoke was articulate, intelligent and had something interesting and unique to contribute.  A couple that were very compelling:  The woman who did the research on the other substations in the United States that one of the PATH witnesses brought up at an earlier portion of the hearing in an attempt to "normalize" PATH's proposal as something in operation in many other communities.  Another was the gentleman who brought up the 5 ton weight limit on all the roads leading to the substation site.  Does PATH think their gigantic substation is really going to float down out of the sky as portrayed in their silly Truescape video?  When questioned, one of PATH's rebuttal witnesses admitted that construction would take approximately 4 years.  Four long years of torn up roads, huge equipment being moved on site, noise, dust, disturbance and danger... are you serious?

There was also some very poignant, eloquent and emotional testimony given by several citizens and a pair of charming young ladies, who moved the board and the audience (well, those capable of emotion anyhow, which leaves out those sitting in the two front rows on the left side of the hall).

During rebuttal, PATH presented a string of witnesses that had not testified earlier, causing the Board pause to consider whether these witnesses should be cross-examined (oh, please, no!  this would have added a few more days to the process!) but eventually made the decision to let PATH's attempt to circumvent the process by introducing new witnesses during rebuttal slide.

One of these witnesses was Robert Dahlin of Kenney Construction of Hagerstown.  Hagerstown?  Really?  This is only a temporary office in place for the duration of the PATH project.  What would a transmission line contractor need a local office for if PATH wasn't being planned?  Anyhow, Dahlin testified that PATH will bring 130 construction jobs to Frederick County.... total, overall, during the four-year construction period, probably no more than 50 at any one time.  He also mentioned that many (I'd bet nearly all of them) would be filled by specialty workers from other parts of the country on temporary assignment.  However, Frederick County would "benefit" from the revenue these Motel 6 transients sprinkled upon the community with their fast food meals, trips to the laundromat and Walmart shopping sprees.  Seriously, where does PATH think they are?

Another great witness was Jay Goldman, PATH's WV real estate values expert.  He testified that he disagreed with the local Maryland real estate values expert that had testified earlier in the day and then spent an inordinate amount of time extolling the virtues of subdivisions in the Charleston, WV area from which he hails.  These subdivisions are surrounded by transmission lines, small distribution substations, railroad tracks, water towers, landfills and public housing and have a lovely view of the John Amos coal-fired power plant's huge smokestacks and the homes still sell for a million dollars!  He later brought that figure down to around $600K, but assured the Board that Charlestonians are falling all over themselves to live in these exclusive subdivisions.  Does he also moonlight as a script writer for The Simpsons?  I was approached during the break after this witness by several of my friends from Frederick County who were both appalled and amused at this guy, but I think amusement finally won the day.  Smooth move, PATH!  That's why your legal brains get paid the big bucks!!

The third witness talked about borings, groundwater and drainage, but honestly, he wasn't making sense and was so "boring" himself that I nearly fell asleep.  The person sitting next to me actually did fall asleep but was polite enough not to snore.

The Board of Zoning Appeals deserves our effusive thanks for the professionalism and patience they displayed throughout this long, long process, no matter the decision they reach on Thursday.  Glad that's over... although we finally found a great little restaurant and brewery nearby.  We may have to come back to Frederick soon for absolutely no reason at all except great beer!

Link to Frederick News Post Article about the hearing.  Be sure to read the comments -- pretty funny!

Many thanks to the community of Summit Point and those passing through who supported our efforts to stop PATH by coming out to our yard sale and bake sale on Saturday!  The sale was another huge success and big fundraiser for our organization.  Together, we can beat the corporate greed behind this unneeded project!

We also owe our our gratitude to the ones who worked so hard to make this event possible.  Steve Smith and Sharon Wilson were at the sale the whole time and put many hours into preparation and clean-up  -- we couldn't do it without their expertise and organizational skills!  We also thank our many volunteers throughout the day because we couldn't have done it without their help either -- Bill Culley, Richard Crim, Stan Beall, Robin Huyett Thomas, Shirley and Sam Smith, Carol Brophy, Debbie Royalty, Ed Hannon, Patience Wait, Scott Tatina, Jane Minard, Curt Mason, J.P. and Donna Burns, and if I missed someone due to being in and out during the day, my apologies.  We appreciate everyone's effort and commitment to our cause!

StopPATH WV also hosted a well-attended landowners meeting just down the street at the library Saturday morning and lots of useful information about PATH's land agents was shared through discussion.  We appreciate those who came to share their experiences, tips and tactics.  A well-informed, cohesive community is a dishonest land agent's worst nightmare!  If you missed this meeting, contact us about additional landowner meetings to be held in the near future.  We guarantee it will be time well spent!

We're looking forward to working with everyone in our community on many upcoming events and forming the inevitable long-lasting bonds of friendship.  The best part is that we're always having fun while we work together!

Gearing up for more fun in Frederick tomorrow, the Frederick News Post ran another editorial panning PATH this morning.

There was also another dry, boring article by FNP business reporter Ed Waters, Jr., that was so insipid that I'm not even going to bother with the link.  When is FNP's management going to get a clue that PATH is not strictly a "business" issue but a larger, community issue that will affect residents (as opposed to businesses)?  By continually assigning all PATH stories to their business reporter, whose job is made easier by sucking up to corporations and reprinting press releases as "news", FNP continues to miss the REAL story here.  Maybe some day they'll actually want to sell some newspapers before they go broke and a whole bunch of people are out of a job.

I recently came across this "letter" that was used as an advertisement for the TrAIL project.  David Flitman seems to play very loose with actual FACTS, which begs the question, is this an intentional act of propaganda proliferation or is this guy just stupid?

Let's examine what he got wrong here:

Myth: TrAIL is not about keeping the lights on in our community. This project is about exporting cheap power from the Midwest to the power-hungry East Coast.

Fact: This project is not about exporting power to the East Coast – it’s about avoiding blackouts. If the Pennsylvania portion of TrAIL is not built, residents and businesses in Greene and Washington Counties could suffer blackouts, voltage disruptions and brownouts in just a few years. Large-scale commercial development in northern Washington County, along with increased individual power consumption in southwestern Pennsylvania, is straining the existing lines. If you visit our project website (aptrailinfo.com), you will see that power from 502 Junction Substation, near the Pennsylvania–West Virginia border, will flow north – not east – to serve the growing communities south of Pittsburgh.
If the remainder of TrAIL is not constructed, customers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region will be at risk of blackouts, voltage disruptions and brownouts as early as 2011.
For these reasons, PJM has directed us to build TrAIL to prevent such catastrophes from happening.

WRONG:  "you will see that power from 502 Junction Substation, near the Pennsylvania–West Virginia border, will flow north – not east – to serve the growing communities south of Pittsburgh" 
Duh, dude, power doesn't "flow" in any one direction.  The grid is like a giant energized loop, going in all directions at all times.  Was this before Allegheny came up with their "bucket" analogy?  I'm starting to wonder if you're just stupid...

Myth: We have plenty of excess power plants in our region. If the East Coast needs more power, they should build new power plants in their own backyard.

Fact: Contrary to popular belief, communities generally do not receive power exclusively from a neighboring power plant. Instead, available generation is interconnected to a larger power grid, and electricity may often travel long distances from where it is generated to where it is needed. At issue here is not available generation, but the capacity of existing transmission lines to transport it to customers. It was transmission line failure that caused the infamous blackout in 2003. Currently, several lines that cross our transmission zone are at risk of overloading and causing blackouts. The TrAIL project will help to prevent this from happening by relieving congestion on these overburdened lines.

WRONG:  "At issue here is not available generation, but the capacity of existing transmission lines to transport it to customers. It was transmission line failure that caused the infamous blackout in 2003. Currently, several lines that cross our transmission zone are at risk of overloading and causing blackouts."

The 2003 blackout was caused by OPERATOR ERROR on the part of First Energy.  You know, those guys who are going to swallow you all up soon and belch you back out in a few years when you cease to be useful to them?  According to the linked article, the transmission line that started the domino effect here was only loaded to 44% capacity, but lack of right-of-way maintenance caused it to sag into a tree that shouldn't have been there.

Lots more here to laugh at (including the fakey look of the whole "letter" pdf), but I smell StopPATH WV bake sale brownies nearing their peak of perfection.

If you ever see ol' Davey around, ask him how his golf game is coming along.  Since you're all going to be paying for at least the next 5 years to depreciate his participation in an industry brown-nosing conference's golf tournament, you certainly have an investment in his game.

The Louis Berger Group has agreed to pay $69 million to settle allegations of cheating the U.S. Government by intentionally overcharging by at least $10 million on government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In exchange, the government agrees not to pursue criminal charges against Louis Berger Group.  Read the entire story here.

The Louis Berger Group is also a contractor for the PATH companies and was paid $1,253,323.95 in 2009 for their work on the PATH project.  Because Louis Berger Group's services are considered a capital expense under PATH's Formula Rate cost-recovery system, these expenses earn that 14.3% return every year for the PATH companies until the asset has completely depreciated.  The more Louis Berger Group charges, the more interest PATH pockets!

All these expenses and their associated returns are being recovered from ratepayers in the PJM region every year.  Who's watching the henhouse here, except for the PATH company foxes?  Would Louis Berger Group be able to resist overbilling when faced with another source of public funding that is administered through a complicated financial/cost-recovery system that makes the average person's eyes glaze over and roll up into their head?

I hope we'll soon find out!

We've had a report by a landowner on the mountain that he confronted several people he caught creeping through the woods on his property late last week.  They handed him a copy of this letter as an explanation for their trespassing.

Despite what this letter says, these PATH contractors need your permission to be on your property!  If you have not given permission for PATH to conduct surveys on your property, these people are trespassing and should be dealt with accordingly.  If they refuse to leave immediately, please contact the Sheriff to have them removed.  Their letter does NOT give them permission to trespass on private property.

If you have signed one of PATH's survey permission forms, there's not much you can do about it, aside from rescinding your permission.  Information about how to rescind permission can be found in our Landowner Resources section.  Strangers creeping around your property like they own the place without prior notification is exactly the reason we have been advising landowners against signing survey permission forms.  By signing these permission forms, you are subjecting yourself to more of this rude, bullying behavior.

Louis Berger Group employees working as contractors for PATH have also been reported as lying to landowners in order to coerce them to give permission for these surveys.  Landowners have been tracked down at their jobs, harassed by trespassers who refused to leave, been told that they would have to pay for these surveys out of their own pockets if they refuse to give permission, and other self-serving lies.  You are not required to give your permission for these surveys! 

Although the letter states that these surveys are "necessary to satisfy federal and state regulatory requirements", this is a flat-out lie.  These surveys are being conducted by PATH in order to try to circumvent real federal surveys and present "surveys" that come to PATH-ordered conclusions.  Remember, PATH always comes up with the desired answer before approaching the problem.  These surveys are not in your best interests and have NOTHING to do with the Federal Environmental Impact Survey currently being conducted.

Be smart and don't let PATH push you around... and tell your neighbors!  One of the greatest things about living in Jefferson County is that we all watch out for each other.  Discuss this with your neighbors and take appropriate action!

Lots of folks have received letters or phone calls from Dominion Power or their consultants recently regarding a proposed rebuild of the Mt. Storm - Doubs 500kV line.  In response to your questions, all we can say right now is that we're still investigating.

If you are looking for more information to form your own opinion about what's going on, here are a couple of things I've dug up for your perusal:

Dominion's website with more information about the project.  Contains maps, "fact" sheet, FAQ, project timeline and specs.

We first saw this project mentioned as "Alternative 1" in Dominion's PATH alternative proposal presented to PJM in May of this year.  Unfortunately, this rebuild was also included in Alternatives 2, 3 and 4, which also contain some portion of PATH being built, including PATH in its entirety.  See this link for the latest PJM TEAC document.  The first few pages discuss the project and show some shocking pictures of deterioration of the tower structures.  Of course, power companies and propaganda go together like peanut butter and jelly, so keep that in mind.  Read Page 15 carefully for a few clues before you become a cheerleader for this project, thinking it's going to solve all your problems with PATH:  "Window of opportunity to get line outages after Trail is placed in service in the Spring of 2011
Transmission owners should use best efforts to complete the work by 2015
– If sufficient outages can not be obtained to complete the work by 2015, the full scope will be finished following PATH being placed in-service.
– After completion of PATH, outages should be more available
– Based on worst case estimate, the project could take as long as nine years; therefore it is imperative the parties start as soon as possible"

See also Dominion's Q3 2010 Earnings Call, which contains this quote:

"Also, yesterday, PJM announced its intention to recommend to the PJM Board the reconductoring of our Mt. Storm-to-Doubs line as part of the 2010 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan. We anticipate formal PJM approval in December, in line with our expectations since we first announced this project at our May financial conference."

The Earnings Calls are famous sources for fat cat executives posturing for their investors, so take that with a grain of salt as well.

If you're really curious, come to one of the "Open House" meetings to be held in Winchester and Lovettsville next week.  Although these "Open Houses" are supposed to be for Virginia residents, with similar ones for West Virginia residents to be held early next year, we encourage you to attend and ask as many questions as your patience will allow.  I almost feel sorry for the Dominion guys after PATH has made such a mess of their relationship with the public.  Remember, these guys aren't responsible for PATH, although they are responsible for TrAIL, so give everything the "sniff test", but be polite.

November 16, 5:00 - 7:30 PM - James Wood High School cafeteria, 161 Apple Pie Ridge Road, Winchester, VA 22603

November 17, 5:00 - 7:30 PM - Lovettsville Community Center, 57 East Broad Way, Lovettsville, VA 20180

See this article in the Hagerstown Herald-Mail.  It is an AP story, so I can't fault the Herald-Mail for the content, but they ought to pay a little more attention to the filler they pick up and use.  Maybe they're just a little worn out after the long hours required by the election.  Newspeople are human too, after all.

This article is full of lies and half-truths.  Let's start with the headline, "Planned merger would cut electric rates in W. Va".  To read for yourself what a load of crap this statement is, see the actual proposed settlement that was filed with the WV PSC yesterday.  The truth is that your "savings" will only be offset by future costs whereby they will merely mitigate future rate increases.  The reduction of the ENEC rates by $7.5M over 5 years is chump change for the power companies.  They are billing $36.9M in 2011 alone for the PATH revenue requirement, a portion of which is passed on to you in the ENEC rates in WV.  After those five years are up... watch out, you're going to get severely jacked because they will cry that the haven't had an increase in 5 years.  So, don't start polishing your piggy bank yet, take a hammer to it instead.

That half a million they are "donating" to the Dollar Energy Fund is another very small pile of chump change for them.  They don't care about the "poor people".  Please!  I got a cute little flier about the Dollar Energy Fund in my bill today.  What they will do is match your contribution, dollar for dollar, if you donate to help pay the poor people's electric bills this winter.  Gosh, I wonder what that has to do with their $500K "donation" under this settlement?  Wanna bet their "donation" is the same as what they have already committed to match "subject to agreements" or something like that... there was a catch, but I've already tossed the thing and I'm not digging in the trash for it.

The Allegheny Energy/First Energy merger will also give you:

None of the direct merger costs can be recovered from ratepayers.  Ha ha!  I hope the WV PSC is intending to audit them.  They cheat.

No layoffs for Allegheny Power employees for two years, after which time they will "consider" you for a First Energy position.  If I worked for them, I'd be looking for another job... soon.

Their Fairmont Call Center will stay in operation for 5 years.  Then all those folks will have to go get new jobs and Fairmont will have a vacant facility on it's hands.  What great economic benefit to WV!!

That promised "regional headquarters" is for Mon Power and is to be located in or in close proximity to service areas.  Aren't other states like Ohio and Pennsylvania in "close proximity" to the Mon Power service area? 

There are some really vague promises of improved customer service/satisfaction and less outages and a puff of air promise to throw a bone toward energy efficiency and demand side management goals, but the percentages are so minuscule as to be laughable.

So, fellow West Virginia Allegheny Power customers, how does it feel to have been sold down the river again by the state officials who are supposed to be looking out for your welfare?  Who benefits here?  The super-rich power company stockholders and officers.  The worst part is they get all their money out of our pockets.

The one bright spot is that the case is not over yet.  Write, call and email the PSC and "your" representative Byron Harris at the PSC's Consumer Advocate Division and let them know your thoughts about their proposed "settlement", in which the citizens were prevented from participating.

Contact the WV PSC.

And come back and visit us again soon.  Lots of interesting bits of news stacked up for publication as time permits.  It's getting hot in here, folks!

Sad news out of Tucker County today.  A helicopter constructing the TrAIL 500kV line crashed, killing one worker and injuring three others.  Read the story here.  What a tragic waste of the life of someone who was only trying to make an honest living!

Allegheny's beady-eyed coal-fella is quoted as saying what an "important project" TrAIL is.  Important to Allegheny's balance sheet, perhaps, but not worth someone's life.  Can't he turn the BS off for a day out of respect?

Allegheny Energy, have I told you how much your greedy initiatives suck lately? 

If you're one of the ones who attended the EIS meetings in July or sent in your comments, you should pat yourself on the back.  The Public Scoping Comment Analysis Report has been completed.  It looks like PATH has a lot of opposition from citizens, environmental groups, civic groups, conservation/preservation groups, county government, federal government, state government, recreational groups and town or city governments.  All these comments are relevant and well thought out.

Be sure to check out the whining of PATH's attorney on comment #622.  I do believe they're a bit scared of the huge amount of support for expanding the scope of the EIS to cover the entire PATH project.  Lovely pity party talking about the "limited nature of federal control", when these very same companies play the FERC card repeatedly with the three states' public service commissions ('if you don't allow us to do "x", we're going to FERC for backstop siting authority").  Same crap they pull with their costs on the state level -- "those are beyond the state's control and are handled through FERC".  The federal government is a tool they use over and over, either rejecting it or clasping it to bosom, to suit their purposes on any given day.  Nothing like a little hypocrisy, is there?

They also think that the PATH EIS should be modeled after the Jackson's Ferry/Wyoming transmission line that was put online in 2006.  I think the NPS & NFS would do better modeling it after the EIS for the Susquehanna-Roseland line, which is still in process.  The power companies in that case have made a real mess out of it, tried to segment approvals and construction, and then sued the NPS when it didn't go their way.  NPS may have learned a thing or two about power company greed just lately.

It looks like PATH also activated their astroturf front groups in all three states to send in some uninformed, ridiculous comments in support of PATH.  Blah, blah, reliability, blah, blah, blackouts, blah, blah, economy.  What does the NPS & NFS care about any of that?  Hey, hey, let's trash our national resources so a brainless wench in Fairfax, VA can continue to play on her laptop!  And let's not forget Corky Demarco, he needs plenty of electricity to iron those shirts that creep up and attempt to eat his empty head.  Astroturf -- just another one of PATH's HUGE mistakes that are going to end up costing them dearly.

The next step is public comment meetings on the range of alternatives to be considered, which will be held in first quarter 2011.  Let's keep up the good work!