Invenergy has been trying to build its merchant transmission Cimarron Link project since at least summer of 2023.  That's when its courting of landowners was brought to my attention.  It is likely that it has been in the works much longer.

A merchant transmission project is to transmission what a private toll road is to transportation.  There is an existing network of electric transmission lines that serve all public utilities that provide service to all who request it.  Because this is a public network (compare to a public highway) everyone who takes electric service pays a portion of constructing the network and keeping it operating.  Our tax money pays to keep our highways maintained for everyone's use.  But a merchant transmission project is a supplemental, speculative transmission line.  It is not necessary for public utility service and it is not subsidized through our electric bills.  It's a private electric toll road to ship electricity that is paid for by the electricity wholesalers who choose to use the private roadway to receive electricity they purchase from generators.  A merchant transmission line relies on voluntary customers to pay for its construction and operation.  If a merchant transmission project doesn't have any paying customers, it's not economic and cannot be built.  It is a speculative investment by private companies who want to bet that if they construct it, it will attract paying customers.  Much like a private toll road highway, it is not for the use of the general public, but only those who can pay the toll to use it.

Cimarron Link is a merchant transmission project.  It is not needed for reliability or economic purposes, and it is not part of any transmission plan by regional grid operator Southwest Power Pool.  It's "need" would only come from paying customers who want to use it.  But Cimarron Link doesn't have any customers!  Therefore it applied to receive a capacity contract from the U.S. Department of Energy, and it was awarded such a contract in 2024.

The capacity contract is essentially the U.S. government using taxpayer dollars to pay the "toll" on Cimarron Link.  But the government isn't a public utility and does not supply electricity to anyone.  The idea is that the government will underwrite the cost of constructing the project with the hope of re-selling the ability to use the toll road to an actual utility somewhere down the line.  Of course, anyone could sign up to pay the toll now, but they haven't.  If they don't want to use Cimarron Link now, what's the chances that they will want to pay the toll later, after the project is constructed?  There is no precedent for this new capacity contract program and it is unproven that it will actually work.  If it doesn't, the government will continue to pay the toll for Cimarron Link for up to 40 years in the future, even though it is not actually using it, and Cimarron Link may never deliver any electrons to anyone.  The government is acting as a speculative investor, betting that it can sell something that Cimarron Link cannot.  Good luck with that!

So, Cimarron Link lined up at the hog trough to help itself to a $306M capacity contract.  While it was filling its belly, it also thought that maybe a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor would taste good, so it applied for one of those as well.  A NIETC would have been a federal land use designation that created a zone for construction of Cimarron Link and would make it eligible for federal permitting and eminent domain if not granted by the State of Oklahoma.  But that didn't work out.  The U.S. Department of Energy cancelled the proposed Delta-Plains NIETC that Cimarron Link wanted to use to route its project across Oklahoma.  Now Cimarron Link can only use Oklahoma laws to try to take property using eminent domain.  If Oklahoma does not grant Cimarron Link eminent domain authority, the project is essentially dead.  Sure, Cimarron Link can continue to try to obtain voluntary easements across private property, but if the landowner refuses, that's the end of it.

Which brings us to Cimarron Link's recent suits against landowners to obtain an injunction allowing Cimarron Link to enter private property to perform "surveys" against the landowner's wishes.  When it filed its lawsuits, Cimarron Link claimed it was "authorized to exercise the power of eminent domain for the appropriation and use of lands and rights-of-way necessary for a public purpose by law specifically, Tit. 27 Okla. Stat. Sec. 7 and Tit. 66 Okla. Stat. Sec. 51-60."    Cimarron Link claimed it was a corporation that was engaged in the transmission of electricity in Oklahoma.  But is it really?  Not right now it isn't.  It's not furnishing anything to anyone.  But it wants to do so.  So, it's not really clear that Cimarron Link's speculative merchant transmission project is authorized to use eminent domain.

Now, maybe Cimarron Link thought it would be easy to convince a local judge that it currently has that ability so that it could force its way onto private property to do surveys for its transmission project.  But the people fought back and said it did not have that authority under state law. 

Maybe Cimarron Link thought it could continue operating under the radar long enough to get such a determination by a local court, but that idea ended when it got too greedy and helped itself to a NIETC designation.  The people of Oklahoma found out about that, and they were incensed.  Huge opposition to the NIETC soon developed and all of a sudden people stopped cooperating with Cimarron Link.  The sleepy days of keeping quiet and bullying landowners to sign voluntary easements are over.  Now Cimarron Link has a huge problem on its hands.  It is not clear that Cimarron Link has eminent domain authority, and the people are refusing to sign voluntary easements.  Cimarron Link's little piggy has eaten itself into a full-blown HOG, and we all know what happens to hogs... they end up on the dinner table!

Perhaps sensing that its effort to convince a court that it has eminent domain authority wouldn't be successful, Cimarron Link recently withdrew its suits for entry against landowners.  But it did so without prejudice, which means Cimarron Link reserves the right to bring this issue before the courts in the future.  Cimarron Link said it was withdrawing its suits to "allow more time for engagement with landowners."  Well, good luck with that, Cimarron Link, landowners have formed a wall of resistance and are having none of that, thanks to the opposition that developed during the NIETC debacle.  Word has it that Cimarron Link is trying to move on to adjacent landowners and begin its game on a new, unsuspecting public, but is that really going to be successful in the new public relations disaster environment that NIETCs created?  What other tricks might Cimarron Link have up its sleeve?

Cimarron Link is a project owned by Invenergy, a private energy firm based in Chicago.  Invenergy has invested in several merchant transmission projects around the country.  One of its projects, the Grain Belt Express, was rejected by Illinois courts because it wasn't a public utility with the ability to use eminent domain.  Illinois law required that a public utility actually be currently engaged in the business of furnishing power in order to file an application to build a transmission line that could use eminent domain to acquire land.  Like Cimarron Link, Grain Belt Express was a speculative project by a new entity that was not a public utility.  But Invenergy found a way around that by creating bespoke, special purpose legislation that granted it eminent domain authority in a handful of counties it wanted to cross and allowed it to apply for a permit.  This special purpose legislation was tucked neatly into the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), an energy bill that comprised thousands of pages and was dumped on the legislature just hours before the vote, making sure that legislators didn't have time to even read it before voting.  As a result, the legislation passed, and Grain Belt Express was suddenly a public utility that could use eminent domain to acquire land for its merchant transmission project.  Now, I'm not saying that Invenergy's fattened hog is going to use the same tactic in Oklahoma to ensure it has the power of eminent domain before re-filing its suits to enter and take land for Cimarron Link, but it's certainly possible.  Keep an eye on what's happening at the Oklahoma legislature this year!  And while you're keeping an eye out for amendments to Oklahoma eminent domain laws, perhaps you might want to propose some of your own?

Thanks to the NIETC public relations disaster, landowners are talking to each other and comparing notes about the things they have been told by Cimarron Link.  And, if any of the things I have heard are true... shame on you, Cimarron Link!  Invenergy's Grain Belt Express project has a "Code of Conduct for Land Agents" that set some ground rules for interaction with landowners.  Oklahoma landowners might be quite shocked to find out which tactics are not allowed on a different Invenergy merchant transmission project.  Why isn't Invenergy using this same Code for the Cimarron Link?  Don't Oklahoma landowners deserve the same respect and honesty as the landowners in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois who are targeted by Grain Belt Express?  Maybe someone wants to ask Invenergy why it doesn't have a Code of Conduct for Cimarron Link?

Cimarron Link's little piggie ate too many government handouts and has now turned into a full blown hog.  Everything was going great until Cimarron Link ate that NIETC dangling over its trough.  Cimarron Link brought this public relations disaster upon itself, and now it has to pay the consequences.

Last year, regional grid planner PJM Interconnection approved a new 500kV transmission line from a cluster of coal-fired power plants in northern West Virginia to Virginia's data center alley.  That line is assigned to Florida-based NextEra Transmission (Greene County PA, Mon, Preston, Mineral and Hampshire Counties WV, Garrett and Allegheny Counties, MD portions) and Ohio-based FirstEnergy (Frederick, Clarke, and Loudoun Counties, VA, Frederick County, MD, and Jefferson County, WV portions).  On a map, that combined project looks like this:

Locally here in Jefferson County, the project is proposed to tear down the existing 138kV transmission line and replace it with a combined 500kV line with 138kV underbuild (double circuit) on an expanded right-of-way.  The current line configuration across southern Jefferson looks like this:

The big metal towers will stay the same.  The smaller wooden towers will be torn down and replaced with a big metal tower that has the two new circuits on it.  It will be 30-50 ft. taller than the existing one it parallels.  The end result will be two big metal towers on an expanded right-of-way.

Now PJM needs another transmission extension cord for Virginia's data centers.  The first one just wasn't enough power because Virginia just can't stop building the data centers.  PJM's latest proposal is a 765kV transmission line (the largest AC transmission line in the country) from the John Amos coal-fired power station in Putnam County, WV to Virginia's data center alley.  On PJM's map, the project looks like this:

This new 765kV is proposed by a joint partnership between FirstEnergy, American Electric Power and Dominion Energy.  It is proposed to cross 14 counties in West Virginia (Putnam, Kanawha, Roane, Calhoun, Braxton, Lewis, Upshur, Barbour, Tucker, Preston, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire and Jefferson) 3 counties in Virginia (Clarke, Frederick and Loudoun) and end in Frederick County, Maryland at a new substation north of Point of Rocks.  It is proposed to be built on a new 200 ft. wide right-of-way on towers that look like this:

In Jefferson County, it has been proposed that the new transmission line run parallel to the existing 500/138kV right-of-way that is already slated to be expanded with the addition of a second 500kV line that was approved last year.  If approved, this would expand that existing right-of-way another 200 ft. and add a third transmission tower bigger than the other two.

PJM is still discussing this proposal in its Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee.  The next meeting (and final opportunity for the public to comment) is scheduled for January 7, beginning at 11:15 a.m.  Anyone who is concerned about this proposal is invited to participate, either over the phone, via Webex, or in person at PJM's office in Valley Forge, PA.  Participation requires that you register in advance.  You can sign up for the meeting here.

After the meeting, PJM's committee will recommend that the PJM Board of Managers approve the project and add it to the regional plan.  At that time, we can write to the Board of Managers to ask that they not approve it (but that's a task for another day).  If the project is approved by the Board of Managers, then it is assigned to the responsible utilities who will finalize a route and submit applications to the three state public utility commissions for approval to build it.  If the state commissions approve it, then the utility will have eminent domain authority to take property for its new right-of-way.  This whole process is going to take years, so let's stay focused on the PJM process for the moment.

So, many are asking themselves... am I impacted?  PJM's maps are purposefully vague because PJM is not a transmission line router.  It simply approves a transmission line between two substations... where the route actually goes is a function of the utility assigned to build it, and that route must be approved by the state commissions.  So, we don't know for certain at this time where the new 765kV project will be routed.

What we do know, however, is that this new 765kV project appears in all proposals to be identical to the failed Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) project that was proposed back in 2008.  That project was subsequently cancelled in 2012, before any state approved a final route.  However, the PATH legacy lives on in the memories of the folks who battled it last time.

I still have the detailed Jefferson County maps from the PATH project.  On these maps, you can zoom in to see an aerial photo of your area and where the existing transmission lines run, along with the proposed location of the PATH project.  Sorry it doesn't have any of the newer fancy GPS features like typing your address into a finder, but we're dealing with something circa 2009 here.  The map tiles should give you a general idea of how the new 765k line may impact your property.  

Couple of notes before you look at the maps.  There is one overview tile (above) and 11 other map tiles that trace the route across Jefferson County, tile by tile.  You'll have to find the tile with your property on it, then you can zoom in to take a closer look.

The PATH route is the yellow dotted line.  In some places, it deviated from the existing transmission corridor due to space constraints.  In some cases, the deviation took it miles away from the existing lines, so keep in mind that this line could be routed anywhere and will not necessarily stay parallel to the existing transmission lines.  In some places, there's a black dotted line that says "rebuild of existing 500kV line".  This was a way PATH planned to snake through narrow areas, however that rebuild can no longer happen due to the new 500kV/138kV line that was approved last year.  FirstEnergy is already using the space that the 138kV line currently sits on for its new 500kV line.  It cannot also use that same space for the 765kV line.  While it is possible to double-circuit a 138kV line with a 500 or 765kV line, it is not possible to double circuit 500 or 765kV lines with each other.  The new 765kV transmission line will have to be routed on a new 200 ft. wide right-of-way.  If you live in one of those dotted black line areas, it is likely that the new 765kV transmission line will take your home.  There's simply no where else to put it unless they deviate miles away from the existing transmission corridor.  It is virtually impossible to avoid everything and everyone.  It is a certainty that homes in Jefferson will be lost.  Yours may be one of them... sacrificed to the data center Gods in Virginia.

Also keep in mind that these aerial maps are 15 years old and cover a portion of Jefferson County that has seen enormous growth over the past several years.  Much of what was once farmland is now solar farms and new housing developments (and the building continues!). If you live in a newer development, your home might be represented in an old photo that shows the farms that were there before.  The true extent of the horror of how this line will impact Jefferson County isn't shown.

Now, the maps.  You may need to open several to find the one where your property is shown.  The tiles begin at the western edge of Jefferson and proceed east.

If your property is anywhere near the route for the failed PATH project, you should be concerned.  PATH is going to have a much harder time routing through Jefferson this time around and some properties will be sacrificed.

It's time to step up and get involved!  It's never too early to oppose new transmission needed only to serve Virginia's data centers.

Virginia is in love with the tax revenue data centers provide.  Northern Virginia is home of hundreds of data centers and is approving more every day.  Virginia long ago ran out of electricity to power their data centers.  Virginia's Clean Economy Act requires all electricity produced in Virginia to be "clean."  Virginia has shut down much of its baseload fossil fuel generation.  Where does Virginia think the electricity for its data centers is going to come from?

Surrounding states, like West Virginia and Pennsylvania, who still produce excess electricity from fossil fuels.  Virginia thinks it is still "clean" and meeting its goals if it uses electricity generated from fossil fuels in surrounding states.

When a new data center is approved, it requests service from its local electric utility.  That utility must provide the electric service requested as part of its responsibility as a public utility.  When the local utility does not have enough generation to provide the service, it must acquire it.  The local utility could build new generation near the need, if not for Virginia's Clean Economy Act.  Since the local utility does not have what it needs, it sends its request up the chain to regional grid operator and planner, PJM Interconnection.  PJM Interconnection is then holding the hot potato of supplying power to new data centers.  PJM can only order new electric transmission to import power to Virginia, it cannot order new generators to be built in Virginia.  Only Virginia can order new generators, and they are hamstrung by their Clean Economy Act.

PJM has been solving the data center electric need issue with the only tool in its toolbox... new electric transmission.

In 2023, PJM approved multiple new 500kV transmission lines to import electricity from surrounding states to Northern Virginia.

One of the new 500kV lines runs from a coal-fired electricity hub in southwestern Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia and passes through Jefferson County on its way.  

In Jefferson County, this new transmission line will be built by expanding the existing 500/138 transmission corridor to add a second 500kV line.  The corridor, running across the county south of Charles Town, currently looks like this.

The smaller of the two lines will be torn down and replaced by a second large metal lattice tower that will be 30-50 feet taller than the adjacent one.  On the new poles will be the new 500kV circuit and a new 138kV circuit to replace the one torn down.  In order to put these larger lines in, the easement that the smaller towers currently sits on (100 ft.) will have to be expanded to accommodate the larger structures.  FirstEnergy, owner of the new project, has not yet announced how much the easement must expand.

Many homes line this existing easement, which was mapped out many decades ago when it was farmland.  Over time, new homes were built just outside the existing easement.  When the easement expands, many of these homes and outbuildings will be gobbled up and razed to make way for Northern Virginia's data center electric extension cord.

But that's not all, oh no.  In the summer of 2024, PJM recognized that it had not planned enough imports for Northern Virginia's ever-growing data center burden in 2023.  Now PJM needs another 5,400 MW of electricity to be imported to Northern Virginia from surrounding states.  PJM followed its procedures to send out an RFP for new transmission lines to bring even more power to Northern Virginia.  In response, it received more than 90 proposals.  One of the new proposals revives the old, dead, unneeded PATH project that was cancelled in 2012 in response to overwhelming citizen opposition.  The new proposal looks like this on PJM's map. 

As proposed, it would add a new 765kV transmission line (the biggest, most powerful AC line they can build) from the John Amos coal-fired power plant in Putnam County to Northern Virginia.  John Amos, owned by American Electric Power, is the largest and dirtiest coal-fired electric generation plant in West Virginia.  The new line would cross 14 West Virginia Counties on its way to Northern Virginia:   Putnam, Kanawha, Roane, Calhoun, Braxton, Lewis, Upshur, Barbour, Tucker, Preston, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire and Jefferson.  It is proposed to be built on a new 200 ft. wide right-of-way using metal lattice guyed "V" towers that look like this and would be 175 ft. tall.

The guy wires holding up these structures increase their footprint and make them impossible to farm around.  You're not just dealing with an electric transmission tower, you're also dealing with 4 guy wires on a spreading footprint!

This new 765kV transmission line is proposed to run parallel to the existing transmission corridor in Jefferson County that is already proposed by be expanded by the new 500kV line PJM approved last year.  It would add a third enormous transmission tower to that corridor and expand it another 200 ft.

Interesting note:  Jefferson is the only place where a second transmission line is proposed in the same corridor impacted by the 2023 projects.  We are fast becoming the superhighway for electric extension cords for Northern Virginia data centers.  If we don't stand up now and stop this, PJM will think we don't care about impacts and that we will willingly accept more and more transmission lines until our county is destroyed by expanding electric transmission lines for Virginia!

What can you do?  We need people to get involved to help organize and create an organization to oppose these transmission proposals.  The StopPATHWV organization that incorporated and battled the PATH project has long since been disbanded.  While the wealth of knowledge gained fighting PATH still exists, the few who remain need your help to get organized!  Organize a meeting in your neighborhood, connect with other neighborhoods, hold larger meetings, and the people who will lead this fight will emerge.  Grassroots groups are as organic as their name... get people together and the magic happens!  The people who fought PATH the first time are standing by to help and educate, but we can't do it all by ourselves.

Here's something you can do right now... today... and in the upcoming months as PJM considers these new proposals and eventually selects the one it thinks best meets the need.  Let PJM know what you think!  You can send an email, or attend upcoming committee meetings and voice your opinion live at their meetings.  Here's how to get involved:
​

If we don't stand up for ourselves, no one else will!  Virginia is completely uninterested in solving its data center and energy issues because right now it's easy for them to take advantage of neighboring states.  Only when Virginia's energy problems affect Virginians will Virginia effect change!

The U.S. Department of Energy has made a grave execution error in its rollout of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.  The DOE *thought* it could keep the whole thing under the radar until its planned corridors were selected, only engaging in public notice and participation when it was too late for impacted communities to derail their plans.  That hasn't worked out so swell, and citizen to citizen notification has created a public relations nightmare of epic proportions.

Midwestern states are rightfully terrified at the thought of 5 to 18 mile wide scorched earth corridors being taken from private landowners using federal eminent domain.  And because there was absolutely no useful information provided by the DOE, rumor and speculation has created a firestorm of opposition.  Elected officials have stepped up to defend their constituents, with numerous local resolutions against NIETCs being passed, and state and federal legislation to thwart the program being introduced.  The die has been cast... the public has written its own NIETC narrative, and they HATE the idea of NIETCs.

One such state is Kansas, which recently called staff from the Kansas Corporation Commission before a legislative committee to provide answers.  Why is a state utility commission explaining the actions of the federal government?  I will say, though, that the KCC representatives generally provided accurate information and only tried to "sell" Grain Belt Express to the legislature, not the NIETCs.  You can watch the approximately hour-long presentation and Q&A with the legislators here.

Fast forward the video to hour 5:07:58 to get to the the beginning of the KCC presentation before the committee.

The KCC shares that the Midwest-Plains Corridor was originally requested from DOE by Grain Belt Express, but now GBE has asked the DOE to narrow the 5-mile wide corridor to "only" half a mile.  Even at half a mile wide, this corridor could still house another 12.2 transmission lines like GBE!  A half mile is 2640 feet.  Grain Belt Express, and other large AC transmission projects of 500 or 765 kV use a 200 ft. wide right of way.  2640 feet could house 13.2 transmission lines.  Were the legislators supposed to feel better about a possibility of "only" 13 new transmission lines across Kansas?

Here's another point to ponder... the KCC guys explained that GBE has a current application at the KCC for approval of the "collector lines" GBE wants to build to connect proposed wind and solar farms in southwest Kansas to the Grain Belt Express.  KCC expects to approve this application on September 30 (like the good little Polsky lap dogs that they are).  However, the collector lines are NOT within the proposed NIETC.

The collector lines are the red and blue lines.  Proposed NIETC corridors are the green and tan lines.  The collectors are not within the proposed corridor.  I guess GBE doesn't really "need" those after all?  And why should they when the light green NIETC brings power to GBE from Oklahoma?  Here's what that looks like.

The Midwest-Plains corridor connects to the Mountain-Plains-Southwest corridor, which covers a huge swath of land in the Oklahoma Panhandle, where Invenergy is building the country's largest wind farm.  If Kansas thinks that GBE is going to spur economic development of large wind farms in Kansas, perhaps it should take a deep breath and think again.

The KCC says that GBE has asked for the NIETC in order to help itself to certain government handouts, but it forgot to mention the federal loan guarantee that GBE has applied for.  That program guarantees that the U.S. taxpayers will cover the $7B cost of GBE if Invenergy defaults on its loan.  GBE has not yet shown that it has enough customers to pay for its transmission project, and without customers it would not have enough revenue to pay the loan back.  The KCC instead suggested that GBE could help itself to "capacity contracts" where the DOE buys service on the transmission line that it will never use.  Instead, the DOE would pay for the use of the line until it can manage to re-sell it to some other customer (that didn't want to buy it in the first place).  Unfortunately, the KCC doesn't seem to realize that there is a finite amount of money to be used for capacity contracts and that the money has already been awarded to other projects.  There isn't enough money left to sign capacity contracts with GBE.  What GBE wants is that federal loan guarantee.

One of the legislators questioned whether NIETCs are a violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which reserves certain powers to the states.  He should also recognize that it's also a violation of the Fifth Amendment, because it takes private property and reserves it for future transmission lines without compensation to the landowner.

For some reason, these guys think that Invenergy is "better" than Clean Line Energy Partners.  It's not.  It's that Invenergy is using eminent domain and the threat thereof to secure easements.  Clean Line never used eminent domain, and Clean Line actually intended to export Kansas wind on its transmission line.

Eminent domain is still eminent domain, whether it is granted by the KCC or the federal government.  It was greed that made the KCC give GBE utility status back in 2011.  It's utility status that gives transmission companies the right of eminent domain under Kansas law.

The KCC's Justin Grady did a lovely little dance trying to sell the legislative committee on GBE's ability to reverse flow and provide power to Kansas during a grid emergency.  He obviously doesn't know that it's not quite that simple.  While GBE may have the physical ability to do that, it cannot do that without injection rights granted by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).  SPP is the grid operator at GBE's western terminus, which is the only place GBE could connect to the Kansas grid.  SPP operates the power grid and it must approve any injections of power into its grid to ensure the injections don't cause issues that can crash the grid.  Injection rights require lengthy study and enormous fees paid to SPP in order to gain approval.  Grain Belt Express hasn't engaged in that expensive and time consuming process.  GBE and its KCC representative, Justin Grady, are selling the legislators a pig in a poke.

Aside from Justin's love of Grain Belt Express (yes, the landowners know how much you threw them under the bus time and time again, Justin) the information provided to the committee was educational and accurate.

​Maybe Kansas should rethink this whole thing?  It's not too late!

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri was the first U.S. Senator to oppose the U.S. Department of Energy's recent proposal of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.  Hawley introduced the Protecting Our Farmers from the Green New Deal Act meant to:

• Prohibit FERC from issuing electrical siting permits where State regulators already have jurisdiction to authorize these projects.
• Require FERC to find that any proposed electrical transmission projects it approves minimizes adverse effects on landowners and farmers, adequately compensates them for any loss, and provides benefits to consumers in the State.
• Prohibit FERC from reviewing any electrical siting applications where a State regulator has previously denied an application.

Now Kansas Senator Jerry Moran has jumped on the train to stop NIETCs.  Senator Moran says:

While I applaud what you are doing... can we get it together here, guys?

Although DOE tried really, really, really hard to keep its proposed NIETCs under wraps earlier this year, word is slowly leaking out and America is horrified!  NIETCs proposed would take 103 MILLION acres from landowners across the country and place it into designated transmission corridors, without any compensation at all to the landowners.  That's millions of landowners nationwide that would have their private property made available to the whims of greedy transmission developers.  Is it any wonder that they are outraged by this plan?  We've only just scratched the surface of people finding out that the federal government is coming to take their biggest investment and make it worthless.  Opposition to this plan is going to be off the charts when public engagement and notification begins later this year.  And because the ones who have found out are quickly getting their elected officials involved, it's going to spread.  Elected officials who refuse to help their constituents are on the chopping block.  (Eh, Joe, you were halfway out the door already, good riddance to bad rubbish!)

NIETCs are not Constitutional.  That hasn't been tested yet, has it?  It will be.

Get your hip waders, folks, it's going to get deep in here!

Last night I attended the MPRP "Open House" in Brunswick.  It made the guy from Assedo pretty nervous that we wouldn't sign in and give them our information, but he said we were welcome to look around.  So, I did.  I think maybe he changed his mind later when he spied us chatting with the reporter from Fox because he found it so intriguing he needed to document it with photographs.  I saw you, dude.  Somehow, I don't think PSEG is going to be using those photos for public relations purposes.

MPRP's "Open House" was right out of the utility playbook.  Free food and beverage, free tchotchkes, and plenty of free propaganda from subject matter "experts" that sometimes couldn't stay within their specialties.  Most of them were very nice, heck, they're just doing a job.  A couple were quite snotty when they realized I knew they were blowing smoke.  And I got so far under the PJM guy's skin that he started "m'am"-ing me.  The sickest part of these open house meetings to me is always the Indoctrination Station for the kiddos.

Don't leave your kids here coloring propaganda under the watchful eye of strangers.

The first stop was the table with the PJM guy.  Stu Widom had lots of helpful information, but didn't know much about the actual planning process, and it showed.  Got himself all tweaked when I mentioned the precedent PJM has recently set by changing the route of a different project so it doesn't affect wealthy and politically connected people in Virginia's wine and horse country.  Why don't you ask Stu about that tonight?  He likes to pretend that it was for "environmental reasons" but it was nothing of the sort!  The new route crosses the C&O Canal NHP TWICE.  Environmental my foot.  Of course, poking the rich and powerful might affect Stu's own personal environment as one of PJM's political schmoozers, so maybe that's what he meant?  He obviously wasn't there to talk with citizens, but to use his bee smoker on any angry legislators or government officials who showed up.

Next I talked to one of the land agent ladies, who pretended that's not what she was.  I asked her when they were going to release the land agents on the citizens impacted by this project and she acted all confused.  I asked her if land agents would be calling on people BEFORE or AFTER the Maryland Public Service Commission approves this project.  She assured me land agents would only contact you AFTER the MD PSC approves.  We both knew she was full of it, and my investigation of regulatory filings this morning confirms

Busted!  Those land agents will be on your doorstep as soon as the routing is completed in September.

Next was one of the routing guys who told me this project was needed to supply electricity to the local area.  I told him he was wrong, then he admitted that he wasn't the subject matter expert on that.  He suggested I go over to Stu's table to find the answer to that question.  I said I'd already been there and maybe HE should go talk to Stu.  He refused, so I suggested that he not lie to people about that anymore,

I talked with a delightful young lady at the structure/electrical engineering poster.  She showed me the selected H-frame structures and told me the poles were 40 feet apart and that it would be possible to drive farm equipment between them.  I asked her what happens if someone tried that and accidentally clipped one of the poles and it fell over.  Who would be liable?  She didn't know.  I didn't suggest that she volunteer for a farm machinery rodeo, where the power company person stands in a field with their arms outstretched and pretends to be a transmission tower while farmers see how close they can drive their gigantic pieces of equipment to the "tower" without knocking it over.

I talked with another routing lady who confirmed that paralleling existing transmission lines can actually be MORE destructive than cutting new greenfield lines.  We talked about how homes and other structures are often sited right outside transmission rights of way that have existed for decades.  Paralleling that corridor with a new 150-ft wide easement would destroy everything adjacent to the existing corridor.  She said MPRP would go around homes rather than over or through them, but had to minimize how many times its line crossed the existing line.  There was also a problem where a home stood on either side of the existing easement, preventing expansion on either side.  She didn't know what MPRP would do in that instance.  One of those homes would have to be sacrificed, that's what.  Whichever side of the existing easement has more homes wins.  However, when MPRP uses new easements, it can go around any home or other obstruction and won't have to destroy anyone's home.

And finally, I talked with PSEG's staff lawyer, who happened to be sitting at Stu's table.

Very nice person who pretty much told the truth and had the answers to my rather unique questions.  She admitted that perhaps some of the other "experts" at the meeting may be making crap up and she had asked them not to do that.  I grilled her on PSEG's federal regulatory filings and cost recovery system.  This morning I found the documents and they mostly confirmed what she told me. 

​PSEG has applied at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be granted three transmission incentives.  The first is the Abandoned Plant Incentive.  If granted, PSEG would be able to recover all its prudent expenditures on MPRP in the event that it is abandoned before being built through no fault of PSEG.  This would include if cannot get the permits it needs, or if PJM's need for the project changes.  The second is to set a preliminary debt/equity ratio of 55/45%.  This isn't anything to get concerned about.  The third incentive is recovery of PSEG's expenses related to this project once the project has an approved formula rate.  PSEG's initial expenditures will be recovered over a 5-year period once it has a recovery method.  This means that all the money PSEG has spent preparing this project for PJM, ushering it through PJM's competitive process, it's legal costs to make those FERC filings, the cost of all its contractors (routing, engineering, land acquisition, public relations), the food, the coloring books, even those cute little hardhat flashlight keychains (be sure to get one!).  Everything PSEG has already spent will end up added to ratepayer bills once it has its formula rate established.  The one made up fib the lawyer told was that PSEG was paying for all the current costs of the project out of the goodness of their hearts.  I hope she knew as well as I did that those costs were being put in an account as a regulatory asset that would be recovered (with interest) at a later date.

First, PSEG is waiting for FERC to approve its incentives.  Afterwards, PSEG will file for approval of its formula rate and rate of return.  Bet your eyes glazed over just then, right?  Stick with me here...  A formula rate is a set of tables that calculate a yearly rate based on numbers that the transmission company plugs in from their ledger.  As things are paid for, the costs get added to certain accounts, and the account totals get transferred to the formula rate on a yearly basis.  The number that comes out the end of the formula is the amount that electric consumers pay for the transmission project on a yearly basis.  A rate of return is how much interest the company earns on its capital expenses.  That includes physical assets, like transmission lines, land they sit on, and it also includes the cost of building them in the first place.  It's heady stuff, but anyone with a little accounting experience can handle it just fine.

Once the formula rate and rate of return is set by FERC, you can help PSEG look over its costs every year to make sure they don't include any costs in their formula rate that shouldn't be charged to ratepayers.

To wrap up... I urge you to download and read PSEG's application for FERC incentives.  It may answer a bunch of the questions I have seen swirling around, such as where's the data proving need?  Why was this project selected instead of upgrading existing lines?  If you have questions, why not take them to the PSEG attorney at tonight's meeting?  She's fun to talk to.  Be nice. 

Another utility "dog and pony show" in the books.  Don't expect to accomplish much.  MPRP isn't going to be stopped at any of these meetings, but attending is your first step.  It's simply a networking opportunity.  Come hungry.  As one landowner remarked at one of these shows years ago... "We might as well eat.  It might be all we get."

Everyone is incensed by the U.S. Department of Energy's preliminary 5 mile wide National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) that was magically centered on Invenergy's proposed Grain Belt Express transmission line.  How and why was that preliminary designation made?  And for what purpose?

A NIETC's purpose is to designate a geographic area where one or more transmission projects serving the "national interest" can be sited.  A transmission project inside an NIETC can apply for a federal permit and eminent domain if its state application is denied.  NIETCs are a way to overturn a state decision you don't like.

But GBE claims to have all the state approvals it needs.  So, why the corridor?

Why is it 5-miles wide?

And what ever happened to GBE's Environmental Impact Statement being prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy's Loans Program Office to facilitate a "get out of debt free" card provided by taxpayers if GBE cannot repay its loan?

All these questions (and more!) were answered recently, and the answers did not come from DOE.  DOE has put its interactions with greedy transmission developers under lock and key.  No, the information came from another (anonymous) source whose accuracy can be trusted.

The Midwest Plains Preliminary NIETC was submitted to DOE by GrainBelt Express (GBE) as a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor because of the federal funding opportunities that a NIETC designation opens up, as well as the potential last resort option of the use of federal backstop siting authority in States where the initial state approval is currently under appeal, such as Illinois.  The corridor was originally submitted as five miles in width because GBE thought that it had to be at least wide enough to encompass two lines. 

Because of all the stink you made, GBE has submitted comments to DOE requesting that the corridor be substantially narrowed to no wider than is necessary to site just the GBE line. 

But would a narrow, specific "corridor" that only enables one transmission line actually be something that DOE can do?  It positively smacks of government graft.  Wouldn't a wider corridor give the DOE plausible deniability?  It seems like the DOE was only too happy to create a 5-mile wide corridor (which is supposed to be based on DOE's factual transmission needs study, btw, not greedy requests).  Who knows what DOE will do with this corridor in the fall.  Will they stick with their 5-mile wide corridor, or will they prove that they are nothing more than a corporate puppet by granting GBE's second request to narrow the corridor just wide enough for GBE?

If designated this fall, this NIETC will have to undergo a federal Environmental Impact Study, just like the one GBE is already involved in required by its request for a government loan guarantee.  But the study already underway only studies the very narrow GBE corridor.  It doesn't study a 5-mile wide NIETC.  If the NIETC is any wider than GBE itself, then GBE's EIS will have to go back to start.  But perhaps that is required in any instance, since the basis for the EIS and governmental action will have changed completely between a government loan guarantee and a NIETC.  You could probably litigate on changing purpose in midstream for a long time.  Maybe GBE will have to fund two separate EIS reports, one for each purpose?  Each EIS takes a minimum of two years.

Meanwhile, back at the DOE, the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing.  Don't these gals ever see each other in the hallways and stop to chat?  Maybe not because they are all likely "working from home".  I hear that nobody answers the phone at DOE HQ anymore.  Is any work being done in that empty building we pay for?

DOE says the LPO (Loans Program Office) will publish the draft EIS for public review and comment this winter.  DOE is plunging ahead with the EIS for the loan, while not even acknowledging another one has to be done for the NIETC designation.  At least they're only wasting GBE's money with this duplication of effort.  Carry on, ladies!

And here's another thought brought on by the preliminary NIETC designations.  GBE's western terminus will be in Ford County, Kansas.  We've been told that for years.  The story goes that GBE will ship all that untapped wind energy in Kansas to "where it's needed most" (Mars?  Polsky's imagination?  Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?).  GBE is now asking for approval of two "collector lines" in southwestern Kansas for wind AND solar projects not yet built.  See KCC docket 24-GBEE-790-ST available at this link for more info.

Kansas, huh?  Then what is the Plains - Southwest NIETC for, and why does it reach its cold little finger up into Ford County Kansas?  Is it trying to export even more Kansas wind, or is it importing wind from other states that will be shipped through Kansas on GBE?

Kansas officials who have been falling all over themselves to give GBE whatever it wants because they think it's going to cause massive economic development in Kansas may end up with a massive Dodo bird egg all over their faces if it turns out that Kansas is just being used as another "fly over" state facilitating Invenergy's profit.  Who remembers that Invenergy owns "the country's largest wind farm" in the Oklahoma panhandle?  Whose idea was this Plains - Southwest corridor, and who is going to profit from it?  Invenergy's giant wind farm was planned and construction began (to preserve tax credits) way back in 2018 as part of AEP's ill-fated WindCatcher project that was supposed to connect Invenergy's wind farm to the Tulsa area via a new transmission line AEP wanted to build.  AEP did not receive approvals for that scheme and the project was cancelled.  And there was Invenergy with the country's biggest wind farm in process and no transmission line to serve it.  Invenergy bought the remnants of Clean Line's Grain Belt Express later that same year.  Kismet!

Anyhow... maybe, just maybe, the longer this debacle goes on, the GBE koolaid that some of the project's biggest cheerleaders ingested seems to be wearing off.  Wakey, wakey, little officials!  There's a wolf among your sheep!

Thousands of citizens across the country gave the U.S. DOE their thoughts and opinions about the potential designation of multiple National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) across the country this week.  And it seems like nobody thought it was a good idea, except a handful of clueless congress critters playing politics.  I'm going to bet they didn't ask any of their constituents who would be impacted by NIETCs what they thought about it, and they suck up to the political teat at their own peril at the ballot box.

​This is probably my favorite line from all the comments I managed to read before they got sucked down into DOE's black hole.  This comment comes from the Inskeep family in Kansas.

Congress, the U.S Department of Energy, and the DC political machine never considered the thousands of people impacted by their desire to turn rural America into energy slaves for their glistening cities, nor put it into the context of how it will be remembered by the history books.

The midwestern state farm bureaus submitted excellent comments, and the Missouri Farm Bureau wrote this opinion piece.

These are the Missouri Farm Bureau's comments.

And these comments came from the Illinois Farm Bureau and a collection of impacted landowners in that state.

Further east, I submitted these comments on the designation of multiple NIETC segments in West Virginia for the purpose of shipping coal-fired power to Virginia's "data center alley" via new high-voltage extension cords.

Read the whole thing here:

A citizen asked DOE where they could read all the comments that were submitted.  DOE's response was

This is not a transparent process.  DOE is most likely up to no good, but how can we know for sure when the public is shut out of a process that could take their land and destroy their economic well-being?  What happened to "transparency" and "public participation"?  It's out the window.

Nevertheless, you inserted yourself into a process where you were not welcome.  It's the only thing you can do when your government is holed up with special interests and planning to take what's yours.  The legal challenges will come later.  Thank you to everyone who participated!

What's next?  The DOE plans to issue its decision this fall with "draft" designation reports.  You'll be allowed to comment on these reports, but DOE will have already made its decision and you'll be in the position of trying to change their mind.  Where has democracy gone?

For each corridor that receives a draft designation, the DOE will have to undertake an Environmental Impact Study, which is a multi-year process where they are required to involve the public.  But we already know what DOE thinks of public comment, right?  They have made that plain.  They are in a real big hurry to railroad this process forward before the election in November.  Don't forget to vote!

Well, here's another particularly noxious transmission project weed!  The so-called "Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project" or MPRP.  This industry loves its acronyms!

In 2023, regional grid manager PJM Interconnection devised a suite of new electric transmission projects designed to import new electricity supplies to new data centers in Northern Virginia, and for Frederick County's new Quantum Loophole project.  Data centers use so much electricity, it's equivalent to large cities sprouting up overnight in previously rural places.  New cities need new power supplies, especially because Maryland has been closing all its baseload power plants that run on fossil fuels.  Before Maryland's recent plant closures under their "clean energy" plan, the state was importing 40% of the energy it used.  Now, it needs even more imports!  We're heading toward more than 50% of Maryland's electricity being imported from neighboring states via new high-voltage transmission lines.  The only two states in the PJM region that generate more electricity than they use and can export to Maryland are West Virginia and Pennsylvania.  The MPRP is importing electricity from southeastern Pennsylvania.  Other new transmission projects are exporting electricity from West Virginia's coal-fired plants to Loudoun County's "Data Center Alley.  It's nothing more than a series of enormous electric extension cords for data centers.  In PJM's planning process, it looked like this:

Frederick County was sleeping the sleep of the uninformed throughout the planning and approval process at PJM.  And now it has manifested.

The project was assigned by PJM to New Jersey utility Public Service Enterprise Group.  Why them?  PJM put its new project requirements out for bid, and PSEG submitted the best project for PJM's needs.  PSEG also offered a certain price for the project.  There's more to this, but let's stop there for now.  Since PJM approved this project and assigned it to PSEG last December, PSEG has been busy devising a route for the project, and now they have finished and want to share it with the public.

PSEG will be holding public "open house" meetings across the project area early next month.  See website for details.  The "meeting" is hardly an actual meeting though.  It's a series of information stations the public is supposed to file through, and you may be handed a card to fill out with your thoughts at the end of the meeting.  Each little station will be populated with PSEG representatives, and you can ask them questions.  But there is no formal presentation or Q&A session where everyone can hear each question and answer.  Go ahead... ask different representatives the exact same question and get wildly different answers.  This is why utilities hold these kinds of meetings.  They will tell you what they think you want to hear, and not be held accountable for any of it.  The main purpose of the "meeting" is to introduce preliminary route maps to the impacted community and receive feedback that could help guide the final route that PSEG files for approval of the Maryland Public Service Commission.

This preliminary route map is floating around social media.

Not a lot of detail, but it's a damn sight better than PJM's initial map as far as determining where they expect this project to go.  At the open house meeting next month, PSEG will have the detailed aerial maps that you want to see.  The maps may present numerous short route segments that can be pieced together to create a route.  They may ask what you think of them.  Most people will reject routes that impact them, and may be tempted to champion routes that do not.  But, throwing your neighbor under the bus to save yourself is never a good strategy.  The community must come together to oppose ANY of these routes.  If data centers need new electricity supplies, they need to build new power generators near the data centers, instead of plowing through communities that won't receive any benefit.  

The MPRP will likely need new rights-of-way 150-200 feet wide for its 500kV transmission line.  The company will ask landowners to sign easements for a one-time "fair market value" payment for just the land in the easement.  This gives PSEG the right to use your land, but you will still own it and pay taxes on it.  The easement payments are compensation for land you can no longer use, they are not a windfall or profit.

The MPRP website is chock full of propaganda and small bits of information that impacted landowners need to really investigate.  For instance, the website says:

They don't tell you that the project is only necessary because of enormous new data center load.  If we didn't build the data centers, or if we built new electric generation near the data centers, this transmission line would not be necessary.   It's not for you, it's for data centers.  This project also has NOTHING to do with clean energy.  It will actually increase carbon emissions in neighboring states that will have to produce more power using fossil fuels in order to import it to new data centers in Maryland and Virginia.

​Here's another:

State law allows utilities to access property for limited survey purposes before easements are signed.  However, PSEG wants landowners to sign a document permitting all sorts of surveying and testing, including things that may harm your property, like core drilling.  Think twice about signing this document and giving PSEG unfettered access to do whatever it wants on your property before they have paid you a dime.  Maryland law already gives them access for surveying that doesn't harm your property.  You don't need to sign any document or give them further permissions.

I also didn't notice the words "eminent domain" on MPRP's website, but that's exactly how they intend to acquire land from unwilling landowners.  Easement offers are nothing more than coercion... sign and take the money... or else.  When there's no opportunity to say no, it's not voluntary land acquisition.

PSEG's website, its open house meetings, and its permission forms and easement agreements are written in the company's best interest, not yours!

The best use of PSEG's open house meeting will be the opportunity it gives you to meet new folks who are similarly affected by this project and to exchange contact information and hold further meetings among yourselves to share information of interest to landowners who want to defend themselves against this transmission project.  PSEG is not from here, it doesn't know your community, and at the end of the day it doesn't care what happens to it.  They can't see it from their house in New Jersey!

It's time to circle the wagons, Frederick County!  Later this year, PSEG may file an application with the Maryland Public Service Commission.  When that happens, you have the right to intervene and become a party to the case that can submit testimony and cross-examine utility witnesses with the goal of convincing the MPSC to deny a permit for this project.  There will also be public hearings held by MPSC where you can speak out against it.

Meanwhile, get engaged and stay current on project news.  Talk to your neighbors and others in the community who may be impacted.  Make a plan. Maybe I'll see you at the open house...

Academics who have never had a transmission line proposed across their property are at it again, writing their idiotic "reports" that claim to find the reason why transmission projects draw opposition and are not successful.  I've seen many versions of this "save the transmission world" report, and exactly none of them have gotten it right.  I think it's because they are inherently biased to think that transmission is "good" and "desperately needed."  They believe, deep down in their highly educated souls, that impacted landowners are simply speed bumps on the road to transmission "progress" and that they can figure out new ways to make landowners either acquiesce, or advocate for new transmission to cross their properties.  It's nothing but a psy op.

Nobody likes new transmission across their property.  NOBODY!  Anyone who said transmission was a great idea is either not affected, or their advocacy is being purchased with favorable treatment and ego-stroking (and cash helps, too!).

This new report (see "How Grid Projects Get Stuck" at the bottom of the page) makes conclusions about why the Grain Belt Express stalled out for so long and thinks it has now been successful.  Complete lack of accuracy!  GBE is in as much trouble now as it's ever been.  It's got its corporate head shoved too far up the Biden administration's rear end, hoping for government favors to pull itself out of the dumpster.  How much of our tax dollars will the federal government waste on a project that has never been needed?

And, speaking of need, the researchers did not seem to understand what they were told about lack of need for GBE, no matter how much people tried to educate them.  GBE, as a merchant transmission project, has not been found needed by regional transmission organizations for reliability, public policy, or economic reasons. If it had any of those benefits and its cost was less than the benefits it offered, a RTO would have ordered the project.  No RTO ordered GBE because there was no need for it, not because they are biased against outsiders.  If it's not found needed by an RTO, it is not needed.  Everyone (but the researchers) understands that.  GBE was a speculative venture, a value proposition that never could find any customers who thought it provided enough value to sign a contract.  When a project is not needed by a regional transmission planner, and it can't find any customers that think it's an economic value, then it's a completely unnecessary project.  It is like McDonald's eyeing your front yard -- GBE wants to take your front yard so it can build a transmission project for one simple reason -- PROFIT.  Not because it's needed, or because it provides economic value.  Incumbent utilities may be for profit, but they are also public utilities with an obligation to serve.  GBE is not a public utility.  GBE is only trying to create profit, not serve consumers who need electricity.

The researchers honed in on the disrespectful way Clean Line treated landowners, even mentioning the "Marketing to Mayberry" episode.  Skelly gets faulted for his approach to local governments and elected officials before landowners were even notified.  That pretty much set the tone, didn't it?  How different things might have turned out if Skelly approached landowners first and actually paid attention to their desire for the project to be sited along transportation corridors and buried.  It would be operating right now, if it had attracted customers.  Instead, Skelly and then Invenergy, just kept dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into a plan that was badly conceived from the beginning.  GBE didn't listen to landowners.

The things the researchers think GBE did wrong ultimately don't mean anything though because they picked up on the wrong things, things that wouldn't have made a difference in the long run.

What?  Poor, poor, rich little Michael Skelly.  Everyone was against him!  As they should have been!  He was only interested in plundering for profit.  Landowners have no use for him, and sent him packing back to Houston.  And did our slick willie friend learn anything from his failure?  I doubt it, judging from this article about his new company trying to build a transmission line through Montana.  SSDD.  You can almost smell the failure wafting its way from that article,

State regulators have a duty to consider the public impacts of new transmission.  That's not parochialism, that's doing their job.  State regulators don't work for merchant transmission companies, or electric consumers in other states.  They only work for the public in their jurisdiction.

Projects without benefits will never be accepted by impacted landowners.  Even projects with some supposed benefit for "the public" don't matter when it's your home and your money on the line.

Yes, the utility model of keeping the public uninformed until the project and its routes are set in stone is unhelpful.  Transmission developers that operate in secret fail in public.  But what's the alternative?  Would developers approach communities and ask them upfront what kind of project they should build?  That is unlikely because the whole public engagement process is built on an enormous misconception.  Developers (and researchers) believe that if they can only "educate" (propagandize) impacted communities, that they can turn opposition into support.  That is NEVER going to happen.  Nobody wants a transmission line. NOBODY.  Self preservation is always stronger than bullshit.

The road to success is staring transmission developers, big green transmission advocates, and their government flunkies right in the face.  It's a transmission project that does not need any new land.  No new land, no eminent domain, no impacts, no opposition.

First of all, we should build new power generation near the power load.  When new transmission is needed, it must be routed on existing linear easements, such as road, rail, or underwater.  Building a gigantic network of transmission lines for the sole purpose of connecting wind and solar projects to load in distant cities, and trying to use transmission to make up for the intermittent nature of these unreliable sources of electricity is not going to save them.  Remote wind and solar is an infeasible money pit.  The only thing it's been successful at is making the rich richer.

Landowners who don't want new transmission lines on their property are not a "problem" to be solved.