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.
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.
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