Here's a new website from the PATHLLC information network.  The video on this website tells a now sadly familiar story to all of us here in West Virginia about having family history destroyed by PATH, environmental injustice and power company intimidation attempts.  This video also has some interesting information about PATH contractor The Louis Berger Group, who did the line routing evaluation and has recently been sneaking through the hills with their walrus & bat nets.  

After attending all three tri-state area EIS Scoping Meetings on three consecutive evenings, I am both amused and appalled at PATH's actions at these meetings. What I am not, however, is intimidated in the least.

The Scoping Meetings are designed to hear comments and gather input from the public -- this means affected citizens are to be drawn into the process.  The applicants have already provided their input in the form of a voluminous application, as well as over the past year with monthly update conferences with the EIS contractor.  They will receive plenty of opportunity in the future, as this process continues, to make their concerns known.  Despite this, PATH felt it necessary to turn these citizen-directed meetings into some sort of corporate staff meeting, press conference and opportunity to use paid talent to gather information about their opposition to be used in future advertising campaigns.  Shame on you!

There were at least 8 - 10 PATH executives from Allegheny Energy and AEP present at each meeting, where they stood in their little clusters and took up space, milled around from station to station reading the comment pads, and eavesdropped on what the citizens were saying to the staff and each other.  Despite the memo to dress casual and blend in, they stuck out like sore thumbs.  Was it their obsessive staring?  Or was it that the citizens have actually seen them before at various meetings and events?

They received a surprise on the first night when it was announced an hour into the meeting that public comment would be given at 7:00.  And here they were without their little tape recorders or any shills to stack the speakers' pool!  I notice they did manage to record or broadcast the audio with a blackberry-gadget, but that was highly noticeable.  The second night, they came prepared with their hidden recording devices and their shill from Virginians for Reliable Energy (notice Corporate Partners under the "Coalition" tab).  Unfortunately for them, nobody bought it and they ended up embarrassing themselves.

Allegheny's Randy Palmer confirmed via email that Matt Sutton, Director of Strategy and Research at Charles Ryan Associates, was contracted by PATH to attend all the meetings and "observe".  Randy says that this expense will be recovered from ratepayers under the FERC formula rate (it's being charged to you in your electric bill).  But, Sutton never left the lobby at the Purcellville meeting, so what was he observing?  The conversations of the opponents in the lobby?  They should have sent Matt the memo about attire, those neon polos didn't help him at bit.

The idiocy of Allegheny's Jeff Trout (Senior Attorney, State Regulatory, Maryland and Virginia) at the Frederick meeting took the prize.  He was observed stopping while walking through the parking lot and taking multiple pictures of the rear of the vehicle of one of the PATH opponents -- where the license plate is located.  When confronted, he claimed to be taking a picture of the protest sign taped to the back window.  When questioned as to who he was and what he was doing, he demanded to know who we were, but ended up admitting that he already knew who we were (although we had never met him before).  How did he know?  Has Allegheny been doing some spying on their citizen opponents?  Duh.  Some attorney... he immediately became intimidated and spilled his guts.  Jeff was accompanied across the parking lot by Gary Alexander, Maryland Office of People's Counsel, who tried to take the blame, saying he encouraged Jeff to do it because the sign was so "creative".  What was Jeff going to do with his picture?  Put it in his trophy case?  Take it back to Allegheny Energy in Greensburg so they could all have a good laugh at the expense of the citizens who are going to lose everything they worked for their entire lives and develop cancer from an unneeded transmission line? If he wanted a souvenir, there were plenty for sale in the lobby by the Maryland opposition groups, or maybe he could have asked Randy to borrow his StopPATH t-shirt? Gary seems to have the same problem as his friend in West Virginia, Byron Harris.  Welcome to the club, Maryland citizens!  Both of them then proceeded to argue with us about the new line PJM's TEAC shows coming from the proposed Kemptown substation heading to Salem, NJ (page 14, right where we said it was).  If they are truly this clueless, God bless them, and in the case of Gary, the citizens of Maryland.

Seriously -- what ever happened to the patient Buddhist mountain-top guru act?  PATH seems to be spinning out of control in desperation because they have lost any integrity or chance to influence public opinion.  I'm sure they "observed" how coordinated and knowledgeable the large opposition in all three states is, as well as how far PATH has sunk in the court of public opinion.  This is one fight they are going to lose.  Good luck, Matt.  You're going to need it.

It seems that PATH's citizen opponents in three states now have even more in common than a determination to stop a greed-motivated, unnecessary and destructive corporate initiative.  It seems that many of our PATH opposition websites are being spied on by "The World Leader in Cyber Intelligence", Cyveillance

Since our websites are varied and contain only one common element -- PATH -- it's not a stretch to believe that Cyveillance's clients are PATH partners American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy.

For a fee, Cyveillance will monitor the internet 24/7 and provide to the client:

1)  the combination of people, process and technology that delivers the most advanced and reliable intelligence on company-specific activities.  We monitor the internet around-the-clock for company-specific threats, including:

• Planned boycotts against products and services
• Organized demonstrations
• Planned activities to interrupt business operations and events
• Smear campaigns and dissemination of misinformation
• Threats - including physical threats against employees, corporate officers, facilities and resources
• Solicitations to conspire against the organization

Cyveillance advises, "Keeping abreast of brand-related issues in community networks is now a crucial part of any brand protection strategy.  Left unchecked, many brand-related issues that start small in these social networks can quickly explode into full fledged brand or public relations catastrophes in matter of days."  Oh, the irony!

Last time I checked, this was still America the Beautiful and citizens have every right to express their opinions and peaceably assemble.  We aren't doing anything illegal, shady or wrong  -- au contraire -- we are on the side of right.  Our websites have always been open to anyone who wants information.  No high-priced cyber-spying required!

How does your corporate reputation look now, AEP & Allegheny?  What's next?  Black sedans with tinted windows following me while I pick up my dry-cleaning or Jim Fields (if that is indeed the real name of AE's "corporate security" guy) digging through my garbage cans?  (Bring lots of tape, Jim, I use a shredder).

The citizen opposition groups will not be intimidated.  We're right, we're strong, we're determined, we're backed by the truth and we're not going away.  In fact, like a snowball rolling downhill, we gather more mass everyday.  Allegheny and AEP seem to be their own worst enemies in the court of public opinion.  Perhaps they should try some new tactics for a change, like integrity, honesty and concern for "the little people" whose lives they are destroying?

At the end of the day we're just like you employees of Allegheny and AEP after you leave the office.  We have lives, families, jobs, hobbies, interests, talents, bills to pay, challenges, loves and disappointments.  We're just trying to handle what life throws at us to the best of our abilities.  We're real people.  Corporations and their thirst for the almighty dollar are not.  Quit throwing good money after bad and change your tactics.  Your shady status quo practices are not working for you.