The project also would be a significant source of revenue for PPL Corp., PPL Electric Utilities' Allentown-based parent. Under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules designed to encourage infrastructure investment, utilities may earn a profit of 11.68 percent on transmission projects.
That translates into a profit of up to $700 million. PPL would share the money with any other utilities that participate in the project.
PPL customers, meanwhile, would see the cost, including utility profits, reflected in their rates — though the burden of paying for the project would be shared by ratepayers in all four of the states involved.

If approved, PPL predicts, the project will improve energy reliability and security and provide customer savings by eliminating transmission bottlenecks and encouraging development of lower-cost natural gas-fueled generation plants.
The new plants would help replace energy supplied today primarily by coal-fired plants that, under increasingly stringent federal air quality standards, are expected to be retired in coming years.

The TVA and other load serving entities have a strong and growing demand for cost-effective electricity from renewable resources.

There has and will continue to be a demand for affordable and reliable renewable energy in Tennessee, the larger TVA service footprint, and throughout the Mid-South and Southeast.

The Project will allow TVA and other utilities in the South to reliably and consistently access the country’s most cost-effective wind energy resources.

In particular TVA has been a leader in realizing the benefits of wind energy in the Southeast. In its most recent Integrated Resource Plan, TVA called for 2,500 MW of renewable energy purchases by 2020. Wind energy from economical locations such as the Oklahoma Panhandle can provide a consistent, long-term, low-cost energy supply to TVA and other load-serving utilities in the Mid-South and Southeast.

These wholesale buyers may include TVA as well as other utilities inside and outside of Tennessee that seek to purchase low-cost electricity generated in the Oklahoma Panhandle region.

The Petition states that the Company will provide wind power to TVA and other potential customers. Please identify all other potential customers that Plains and Eastern has had discussions with regarding the purchase of power and provide copies of any agreements reached with these customers.

On page 6 of David Berry's testimony, he provides a list of wind power purchase
agreements involving the TVA (purchaser). To your knowledge, discuss the TVA's process for choosing to enter into such projects, including whether the projects go through the RFP process.

Is TVA or other potential wholesale purchasers under any obligations (including any state or federal requirements) to purchase additional wind power to meet its renewable energy objectives? Provide supporting documentation. To your knowledge, is TVA currently meeting its renewable energy objectives? Will TVA be able to meet its renewable energy objectives absent approval of Plains and Eastern's petition?

Provide a copy of all Memorandums of Understanding with TVA.

Please explain and describe in detail any guarantees or assurances that Plains and Eastern can provide lower cost renewable energy to TVA than TVA currently purchases.

Please list all available state and federal tax credits that Plains and Eastern currently
receives related to projects in other states and federal credits that the Company anticipates receiving upon completion of the project proposed in this docket. Are these federal credits figured into the pricing model used by Plains and Eastern? If so, please explain in detail the impact on rates, as well as the Company's overall operations, that
would result if these federal credits were discontinued by the federal government.

On page 9 of Michael Skelly's direct testimony, he states, "The TVA and other load serving entities have a strong and growing demand for cost-effective electricity from renewable resources." Provide the source from TVA and other potential entities stating they have a growing demand for renewable resources.

On page 11 of Michael Skelly's direct testimony, he states, "The Project will allow TVA and other utilities in the South to reliably and consistently access the country's most cost effective wind energy resources." Please provide all underlying support and rationale
relied upon for the assertion that this project will allow access to "the country's most
cost-effective wind energy resources."

For clarification, please provide the estimated number of construction jobs that would be
created in Tennessee if the petition is  approved. Also provide the estimated duration of these temporary construction jobs.

For clarification, please provide the estimated number of permanent full-time jobs that
would be created in Tennessee upon  completion of the project.

Please describe any assurances and/or guarantees that Plains and Eastern will hire
Tennesseans for the temporary construction and permanent jobs detailed above.

Provide the latest update on the environmental impact statement being prepared by the DOE under NEPA. Also provide the latest update on all federal reviews/environmental studies being performed by the DOE.

Provide an update regarding Plains and Eastern's CCN application in Arkansas.

The eventual “partnership” with DOE through its agency Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA), which markets power in six south-central states, would be limited to use – if needed – SWPA’s eminent domain authority to obtain right-of-way in Arkansas.

SPRA has concerns in general about implementation of Section 1222, and specifically about the proposed Plains and Eastern project. Of specific concern is the protection of SPRA’s federal power customers from any and all liabilities arising from the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and/or ownership of Section 1222 projects. Other concerns include the
demonstrated need for any proposed project and that such projects promote   interconnection of the grid in which they are located.

SWPA’s original authority to construct transmission facilities is limited by Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944 to “only such … facilities as may be necessary in order to
make the energy and power generated at … [Corps] projects available” to its wholesale
customers. SPRA is concerned about extending SWPA’s authority to construct transmission facilities beyond this original mandate.

"The CPUC is committed to facilitating access to records requested under the California Public Records Act and always intended to meet the broad public records requests of the City of San Bruno," said CPUC interim General Counsel Karen V. Clopton in response to the allegations. "The delay in doing so was due to the breadth of the city's requests, the volume of records to be located and reviewed, and the limited availability of staff resources to conduct a comprehensive search and review. Under the settlement, the CPUC has produced records that it would have made publicly available regardless of the complaint."

"[The] disclosure (from more than 7,000 pages of documents received after San Bruno filed the Public Records Act lawsuit against the CPUC) demonstrates an ongoing, illicit and illegal relationship between the CPUC and PG&E," said San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane in a statement. "Not only do these private communications violate the law, but they provide evidence of a relationship between the utility and the CPUC that is familiar, collegial and cozy."

The private emails over the past 36 months are alleged to expose more than 40 violations of the law against ex parte contact by Peevey and top CPUC staff in the San Bruno case.

In a statement, the City of San Bruno said: "We cannot have the same man who has proven to be biased presiding over the so-called 'penalties' that the CPUC will levy against PG&E. Nor should the citizens of our state be endangered by the CPUC's inability to ensure pipeline safety issues."

"We don't think a long time about things, she says.  "That seems like a good idea!  Let's do that!  That's the extent of our long range planning."

A majority of Americans oppose new high-voltage transmission lines in their community, but that opposition drops precipitously to 17% if those lines are delivering clean, renewable energy from wind. Support for new transmission lines leaps from just 46% to 83% when respondents are asked specifically about high-voltage transmission lines delivering wind power.

The survey of 1,239 adults nationwide was conducted last week (April 21-23) by The Saint Consulting Group, the political land use consulting firm that also issues the annual Saint Index© survey of attitudes toward real estate development projects, including energy-generation projects such as wind, nuclear and hydro facilities.

Ben Kelahan, energy practice leader at Saint Consulting, said the new results are a clear sign that Americans support cleaner, renewable power and that it has carried over to the distribution of that power through their own backyard.

“High-voltage transmission lines generate some of the most adamant NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) opposition in the country. That such a large percentage of people are willing to allow green lines in their community says a lot about the awareness and importance of renewable energy and climate change issues in addition to the education efforts undertaken by the renewable energy industry,” Kelahan said.

My name is Tammy Hammond, Kansas land owner for 30 years. As I sit here on
Independence Day 2014 my thoughts are consumed with the efforts of Grain Belt Express Clean Line's plan to run High Voltage Transmission Lines across my properties.
I'm very much opposed to the Grain Belt
Express 140 feet tall transmission towers,
carrying 750,000 volts of electricity, running
across our land. I could list pages of serious
health risks to my children and grandchildren, or provide statistics to the devastating de-valuation of property these High Voltage Power Lines will cause.
Probably, you have already heard those
arguments, so I would like to explain
something which I believe to be much more
profound...
I've been struggling for days with how to tell this story; how do I express with words why a
landowner will fight till their last breath, and their last dollar, to keep what is rightfully theirs?
How do you explain this so people understand the deep-rooted patronage of owning your
piece of the American dream...your Freedom in the heartland...the place you proudly call
home... What I discovered is something much deeper, much larger than Grain Belt Express....
I believe it is "American Spirit", how fitting to tell the story on July 4th, our Country's
Independence Day.

Click here to continue reading

So Today... this Message is for you, Grain Belt Express, Elected Officials or whoever is listening...
Do not underestimate our deep rooted sense of Freedom....
This is our land, my children's land, and so on for generations to come...
Earned with "our" blood, sweat and tears, it is
"we" who have the right to call this land home....
Make no mistake. We planted our "Flag of Freedom" and we will fight to
keep it...
you cannot have it...
you have not earned it...
we are here to stay...

Strenuous efforts to mitigate rather than innovate seem likely to increase vulnerabilities by generating public and customer backlash, motivating market competitors, and instigating potential legal challenges.

This story has significant implications for electric utilities facing increasing and especially disruptive competition that may shift their risk position from the zone in which regulation is effective to one in which it is not. That Market Street responded to disruptive competition by simply requesting rate increases from its regulator reveals denial that their economic woes were due to fundamentally changed circumstances that required new organizational strategy, not just regulatory intervention. Market Street, while fully understanding the existence of threats to its viability, showed no real signs of innovation or adaptation in this regard, but rather continued a reliance on conventional cost-accounting-based utility ratemaking practices to the bitter end.

In the end, the electric utility as an institutional form has not exhausted its relevance. Claims that utilities are in a certain death spiral seem premature. However, those predictions seem disturbingly grounded in tacit assumptions that utilities are too hidebound by their past to be able to adapt in a timely or agile way to rapidly changing conditions. If so, utilities will find themselves to be brittle rather than resilient when confronting disruptive competition in a sector that is central to social, economic, security, and environmental necessities and, therefore, cannot remain static. All signs point to the reality that utilities must change. The open question is whether they will change by embracing and, indeed, leading value creation or be changed by others in the market who embrace it first and more firmly.

1) Why would the school district get involved at all?
2) Did the district check with its constituents in the affected areas before endorsing?
3) Was this a unanimous decision made by the board?
4) What analysis of the project did the board undertake to understand the need and impact of the project before endorsing?
5) What expertise did the board utilize to make this decision?
6) What meetings with Xcel and its representatives has the board (or school staff) held regarding Xcel's proposed plan, when were those meetings held and what was the substance of those meetings?

PJM officials said that while this solution was comparable to other projects based on such factors as cost, schedule and the ability to address the reliability concerns, the Hope Creek-Red Lion 500-kV line was superior in terms of constructability.