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Help!

2/20/2011

I wear lots of hats around here. One that I don't talk about much is the official StopPATH WV, Inc. Treasurer hat, but it's quite an elaborate affair (think Carmen Miranda and her fruit chapeau). Sometimes it gets kind of heavy and it's hard to keep it balanced properly while dancing around the StopPATH WV office.

I need your help, faithful blog reader. Yes, there are quite a lot of you, I've noticed. You may read this blog because:

1. It makes you laugh.

2. It gives you a smile of satisfaction watching the high and mighty get knocked down a peg or two quite regularly.

3. It keeps you abreast of the latest developments in the PATH case.

4. It's a handy-dandy road map for your own transmission line battle with other power companies; or conversely,

5. You are one of those other power companies and you use it as a road map for what not to do.

6. You just enjoy watching your corporate competition get its butt kicked over and over again.

7. You're a PATH project employee and you think if you read this blog obsessively I'm eventually going to hand you a great big secret that you can use against the opposition and you'll be the first to read it; or

8. Maybe you're just a creepy freak with nothing better to do...

If you're one of our regular readers in the above eight categories (or another I didn't mention -- I take suggestions!), I'd like to ask you to make a donation to StopPATH WV, Inc.

I recently received an invoice from one of our experts and it had a lot of zeros in it. While we won't have any trouble paying it thanks to our many very generous donors, it hurts my anal-retentive, geeky, bean-counting, treasurer's psyche to see our bank account take that kind of hit. We need a quick infusion of cash before I start acting really crazy (yeah, yeah, I know, how would you be able to tell?)

So, if you find this blog useful, how about showing us a little love of the green variety? We take checks or credit cards, heck, I'll even take cash, if that's your thing. Go here to make a donation.

I don't think we'll be the beneficiary of any of PATH's ratepayer-funded "corporate stewardship" any time in the near future (but if we are that's one "membership" we promise not to complain about next year since it actually will benefit the ratepayers). We depend entirely on donations from folks who want to see us win this battle. I hope that group will soon include you. Thanks, guys!

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West Virginia is not your sacrifice zone - Updated

2/20/2011

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I'm thoroughly disgusted that the state of West Virginia and its people continue to be viewed as a sacrifice zone by their neighbors in the population centers to the north and east.
News Flash! We are not your sacrifice zone!

In an email to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, Mark Tate, a former town council member and mayor of Middleburg, Virginia, in his (power company coerced?) support of the PATH project, attempts to convince the SCC to approve the PATH project because:

"This project that you are considering, which totals approximately 275 line miles, only impacts a small section of Virginia. The majority of the line will be in neighboring West Virginia with about 30 miles in Virginia and 20 miles in Maryland. Certainly, we can support roughly one-tenth of a project that would be so vital to our region."

So, Mark, what you're saying here is that Virginia should approve the PATH project because there is little effect there (and certainly none in your backyard in Middleburg) and it's okay to run 225-miles of transmission line through West Virginia? Is that because you think of West Virginia as your own personal sacrifice zone in order to get all the electricity you need to live your comfortable, Middleburg lifestyle? How very arrogant of you. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Mark, but PATH will not provide you with electricity.

UPDATE: It turns out that our friend Mark appears to be the epitome of NIMBY. See this article where Mark's "Virginians for Sensible Energy Policy" was involved in the fight against TrAIL. Mark thought TrAIL was a very bad idea for all of the same reasons we now think PATH is a very bad idea. The only difference between TrAIL and PATH appears to be that TrAIL was in Mark's backyard, while the majority of PATH is in Mark's personal sacrifice zone, West Virginia. The Virginians for Sensible Energy Policy seems to have disappeared after TrAIL was approved, or maybe Mark just changed their name to Virginians for Senseless Energy Policy when he developed a sudden affinity for his former enemy, Allegheny Energy, who knows. At any rate, Mark's reason for fighting TrAIL has now been outed. It appears that it wasn't about sensible energy policy at all, it was all about NIMBY. I find that quite repugnant and lacking in character.

Next, let's look at an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun penned by Federico Pena, COMPETE Co-Chairman *cough, astroturf, cough*.

Pena says, "PJM Interconnection, the regional power grid operator, has authorized a series of investments in new transmission lines that will allow states with excess generation to transmit their surplus power to areas where it's most needed, including Maryland. None of those plants were paid for by Maryland consumers, but they will benefit tremendously."

Thanks, Federico, you're a real pal. You think it's a great thing that the citizens of Maryland can benefit from coal-fired power shipped from West Virginia via new transmission lines because it doesn't cost them a thing. What do you think those transmission lines cost West Virginians? Why do you think the citizens of Maryland should benefit at the expense of the citizens of West Virginia? Where did you get your sense of entitlement... was it on sale at Williams-Sonoma? It can't be based on your intelligence because those transmission lines ARE BEING PAID FOR BY THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND. The $2.1 billion PATH project is being paid for by Maryland ratepayers, along with ratepayers from 12 other states and D.C., so I guess it is paid for by Maryland consumers after all. Does this mean the great deal is off?

What makes you arrogant fools believe that it's okay for West Virginia to be your sacrifice zone in order to provide you with all your creature comforts at no cost to you?

Open your eyes! It's not okay to kill us and ruin our environment for your own convenience! West Virginia is providing you with coal-fired electricity via an increasing number of high voltage transmission lines hundreds of miles long. In order to do so, we blast the tops off our mountains, which causes an environmental disaster of monumental proportions. It not only destroys our land, it fouls our water, poisons our citizens and destroys our communities. Mountains are not a renewable resource... they won't grow back once destroyed. Those transmission lines take property from our citizens and once constructed, living in close proximity to them causes health problems. We also mine and export tons and tons of coal for your convenience. This dirty, dangerous industry is killing us, but it is sometimes the only job that pays a living wage and coal holds our citizens hostage to a lifetime of hard, dirty work that ends up killing them. We're also home to your chemical plants and dirty, stinking industry that you don't want to be burdened with because you're trying to clean up your own environment, which you fouled generations ago. We're also home to the latest gold-rush -- Marcellus shale -- which takes our land and fouls our air and water. We're not personally profiting from all this sacrifice we make on behalf of the rest of you. Oh no, all the outrageous profits from this rape and plunder go into the coffers of out-of-state corporations.

When are you going to do your part to support your own habits and convenience, Mark and Federico? We're not going to continue the sacrifice indefinitely. We're sick of it! Many West Virginians are working toward putting an end to this continual sacrificing of ourselves for you while receiving nothing in return. This is being accomplished by cleaning up our political house to get rid of those politicians being paid to look the other way by those out-of-state corporations who are killing us and stealing our property. We are gathering in increasing numbers to stop the massacre of West Virginia's citizens and environment. And we're mad as hell!

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Beware the Ides of March, PATH!

2/18/2011

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Caesar scoffed at the soothsayer, and remember what happened to him? Check out the new post on The Power Line about the motion to delay PATH filed in Maryland today.

I notice that PATH also wants to shut down discovery. I wonder why?

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The facts about jobs and the PATH project

2/18/2011

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What are the facts about PATH's claims that it will provide local jobs and economic benefit to West Virginia? Despite what PATH promises, the facts don't seem to back it up.

In December, 2009, West Virginia State Building and Trades Council signed a Project Labor Agreement with the PATH companies that provides for "a major portion of work for Trades members". However, this agreement only covers, "foundation and site preparation for the
substations as well as work on roads and buildings."

The PATH proposal consists of 276 miles of transmission
line, of which Trades members are guaranteed "work on roads". Since what PATH calls "most" of the transmission line runs parallel to existing transmission lines with existing access roads, there's a limit on the amount of work on roads needed.

The "buildings" will exist at the substations. There are two substations proposed for the PATH project. One in Welton Springs, WV and one in Mt. Airy, MD. This leaves only ONE proposed substation in WV. I don't have details on the Welton Springs substation, but I expect it will be similar to the Mt. Airy substation. I sat in on hours of hearings regarding the Mt. Airy substation in Frederick County, MD, last fall. I learned a lot about the proposed Mt. Airy substation. The "buildings" would be a white metal structure.

At the Nov. 13 BZA hearing, Robert Dahlin of Kenny Construction claimed that there would be only 130 construction jobs on that substation overall during the 4 years it would take to build, approximately 50 jobs at any one time in each 4 - 20 week separate construction activity. He said that these jobs would result in temporary, imported workers sprinkling their dollars around Frederick County with their Motel 6 stays, McDonald's meals and shopping trips to Wal-mart. Kenny Construction, an Illinois company, is PATH's general contractor. It sounded to me like they are intending to import workers to build the Mt. Airy substation, despite the Project Labor Agreement.

Those are the facts about promised jobs in the future; tenuous, at best.

So, let's take a look at the jobs and economic benefit PATH is currently providing to West Virginia while it's in its application and planning stage.

A look at some of PATH's vendors from their Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) FERC account in 2009, received from the PATH companies in discovery, reveals these vendors:

Burns & McDonnell, Missouri
Aycock, Pennsylvania
Contract Land Services ($11,250,526), Texas
DiGioia, Gray & Assoc., Pennsylvania and Virginia
GAI Consultants, Pennsylvania
KEMA, Inc., Massachusetts
Kenny Construction, Illinois
Louis Berger Group ($1,253,323), New Jersey
Technical Solutions, Inc., Pennsylvania
PAR Electrical Contractors, Inc., Texas
Tri-State Drilling, Inc., Minnesota

I won't say that there weren't any WV companies on the list, but they mostly seemed to be involved with minor work setting up office space for Contract Land Services offices in the state. Contract Land Services provides those imported land agents that the citizens of West Virginia have come to know and love. And the more than $11 million that they were paid for services in 2009 does not include the price of the land or rights of way purchased. It looks like West Virginia isn't receiving many jobs or economic benefit from PATH's current application/planning process either.

However, all the expenses in PATH's CWIP account are paid for, in part, by West Virginia electric customers, along with ratepayers in 12 other states and the District of Columbia, with a 14.3% return on equity payable to the PATH companies every year.

What other PATH expenses are West Virginians paying for? Being reimbursed by ratepayers at dollar-for-dollar are the PATH companies' "memberships" and "corporate stewardship" (go ahead, look this one up on google) expenditures in West Virginia. Some notable "memberships and corporate stewardship" opportunities PATH has paid for with money recovered from ratepayers in 2009 include:

WV Business and Industry Council $300
WV Chamber of Commerce $26,000
WV Economic Development Council $100
WV Manufacturers' Association $2,200

The "memberships" are for the purposes of "education of business leaders about PATH". Was this ratepayer "stewardship" intended to curry favor with West Virginia industry and trades? Is it really all about providing good-paying, long-term jobs and economic benefit for West Virginia's working population? Doesn't look like it to me.

At the September 2009 WV-PSC PATH public hearings in Shepherdstown, a large contingent of union members from Cumberland, MD showed up. A few of them were allowed to testify before the PSC caught on that the union was an intervenor and therefore prohibited from speaking. One young man testified how he was out of work and needed the PATH project to put food on the table. I will assume that the rest of the union crew were also without work at that time, enabling them to spend a weekday to travel 2 hours to another state to testify at a public hearing. On that same day they were out of work and testifying at the public hearing, the TrAIL transmission line was being constructed by one of the PATH partners in West Virginia. If there were local union jobs to be had from transmission line construction in WV that would put food on their tables, they would have been hard at work on TrAIL and not cooling their heels in the Shepherd University auditorium.

Read the testimony of two union boilermakers that The Power Line has highlighted in a recent post. TPL also examines the jobs issue related to the PATH project and compares PATH to Dominion's Alternative One on the jobs issue. Dominion uses local labor, not out-of-state corporations supplying transient labor for project construction, on their proposed transmission line rebuild projects in West Virginia.

So, what does the average West Virginia working man get out of the PATH project? Maybe one of a handful of short-term, temporary jobs. The rest of the citizens get the bill for the project, plus 14.3% return on equity paid to the PATH companies yearly. And thousands of West Virginia landowners along PATH's route get their property taken by eminent domain or have their property devalued by new rights of way. Many West Virginians, especially our senior citizens, have a huge portion of their economic worth tied up in their property. When they are stripped of their carefully planned and expected return on equity on their property built over a lifetime, and in some cases over generations, they will never financially recover.

Are the inflated, pie-in-the-sky promises of a handful of jobs by two out-of-state energy corporations worth what the citizens of West Virginia are going to lose in return? You decide.

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Delegates urge PSC to examine PATH alternatives

2/17/2011

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Read what Jefferson County delegates are saying about HCR 58 in The Journal.

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The facts about Dominion's Alternative One

2/15/2011

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Power company lobbyists are telling legislators that HCR 58 "misleads the public". People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

1. Dominion Virginia Power, described as: "Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of more than 27,600 megawatts of generation, 12,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,000 miles of electric transmission lines", has proposed a workable alternative to the PATH project. This isn't some fantasy dreamed up overnight, but a viable plan put forth by an experienced energy corporation.

2. According to Dominion, the cost of rebuilding existing lines is reimbursed to the power company at dollar-for-dollar. Allegheny Energy & AEP's PATH project earns them a 14.3% return on equity. Follow the money -- this is why Allegheny & AEP keep insisting that we need PATH in addition to Dominion's rebuild of Mt. Storm - Doubs. AEP & Allegheny don't want to miss out on their opportunity for a new profit center with PATH.

3. AEP & Allegheny continually point to PJM Interconnection as the impartial electrical diety who "ordered them to build PATH". PJM Interconnection, a cartel of electric companies, has recently had their credibility called into question by state regulatory experts in seven states and the District of Columbia. Read about PJM's credibility problems here, here and here.

In the end, it all boils down to the almighty dollar. It's about what benefits two out-of-state energy corporations and not about what's best for the citizens and ratepayers of West Virginia. Your support of HCR 58 will demonstrate your commitment to West Virginians.

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Ratepayer Comments on FERC Docket

2/15/2011

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The comments from ratepayers regarding the Formal Challenge to PATH's 2010 Formula Rate Annual Update have been pouring into FERC. I've lost count, especially since yesterday FERC sort of gave up and stopped docketing the letters individually and began docketing them in daily clusters (check out the comments of Barbara Bergman -- they actually contain 18 pages of comment letters from other ratepayers).

This is some great stuff! It seems that electric ratepayers aren't real keen on the possibility that they may be being ripped off to finance front groups, propaganda, "corporate stewardship", hunting groups, PATH's advertising campaign, and other challenged expenditures.

To read the letters, search the FERC docket here. In the Docket Number field, type in ER09-1256 and click submit at the bottom. This will bring up a list of activity related to the Formal Challenge. Happy reading!

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Eyecatching, to say the least...

2/13/2011

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I've lost count of how many times I've asked PATH to quit peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining. However, they continue to insult everyone's intelligence by doing really stupid stuff and hoping we're too dumb to catch on.

Behold the petition to intervene out-of-time of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Really, fellas? You have gone so far past ridiculous that I think we're going to have to coin a new word to describe your actions this time. We'll call it ridicufarce.

Remember the ridicufarce congestion costs argument that someone pulled out of their behind last month?
That was thoroughly shredded by Robert Fagan of Synapse Energy Economics, the Sierra Club's real expert.

However, the ridicufarce congestion costs are "eyecatching, to say the least" (and I think the less this guy says, the better) to a couple of guys who are now counsel for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Well, guess what? Your ridicufarce petition has now caught my eye (and sucked away a good portion of my weekend -- thanks a lot, you weasels). Since the pen is mightier than the sword, and my rapier is at the cleaners, I'll deal with you here... for now.

So, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce wants to intervene in the PATH case all of sudden, do they? Why now, when the ratepayers have been paying $15,745 per year for PATH's Platinum Corporate Sponsorship of and "membership" in the Chamber since 2009? (see page 19 of the Formal Challenge) It's almost like someone just rolled out of bed one morning, shouted, "eureka!", and spawned that ridicufarce idea.

Or maybe it's about PATH's inappropriate lobbying (page 37)? However, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that when the Maryland Chamber of Commerce was letting their fingers do the walking through the yellow pages to find an attorney to represent them in the PATH case (remember, "eureka!"), they just happened to land on Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger and Hollander, right? And it's an amazing fluke that Gordon Feinblatt appears on PATH's 2009 vendor detail for lobbying expenses, right? And it's simple serendipity that the two Gordon Feinblatt attorneys who signed the Chamber's petition to intervene, Michael Powell and Todd Chason, appear in the application of PATH-Allegheny paid lobbyists registered to lobby on matters pertaining to Certificate of Need in Maryland, right?

UPDATE: One of our friends has provided a link to the Maryland Public Service Commission's bidding and award process for the Evaluation of PATH. These documents indicate that the award for this consulting work to evaluate PATH's application (to include an evaluation of the economics of PATH) went to a company named Slater Consulting. Where was the MD-PSC's "expert" when Calvin Timmons was getting all excited about PJM's congestion cost evaluation? Why did the PSC even bother hiring an expert if the Assistant Executive Director of the PSC was going to misuse PJM data to come up with his own inexpert conclusions and ignore Slater? Could it be that Timmon's information came, not from the PSC's hired expert or PJM, but from those lobbyists who are being paid to lobby on matters pertaining to Certificate of Need in Maryland? Perhaps someone should look into contact between Timmons, Dean, Powell and Chason. There's something rotten in Baltimore and the smell could indicate that the Maryland PSC's impartiality has already been tainted beyond repair due to the interference of PATH's paid lobbyists in the process of this case.

Does PATH think that they're smarter than the people of Maryland and their Public Service Commission? Apparently so. Quit the ridicufarce, fellas, before someone ends up unemployed, disbarred or in jail. The Gravy Train you're all riding on is heading full-steam ahead for Three State Citizen Coalition Gorge... and the bridge is out!

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Ardent 360 LLC runs for the border...

2/12/2011

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See Bob Weatherwax's response to the West Virginia Attorney General's office regarding the "business opportunity" Ardent 360 "identified" in West Virginia. Bob and Rob are now running for the state border as fast as their little legs can carry them and have "decided not to pursue the opportunity any further in West Virginia."

Notice how Bob chose those words very carefully? Virginia and Maryland citizens are still fair game. The West Virginia landowner who did the work here and filed the complaint has given you all a clear game plan to pursue in your individual states. We need one landowner from Virginia and one from Maryland to file complaints with their Attorney Generals' offices. Can we get some volunteers?

Only through citizen action will scammers like this be sent a clear message that affected landowners are not a "business opportunity" that can be further disenfranchised by opportunists like Weatherwax. Isn't the threat that PATH is going to take your land and/or home enough without providing a "business opportunity" for a third-party parasite to line their own pockets with cash that should rightfully go to the landowner?

So, is this case over in West Virginia as the Attorney General's office suggests? We'll see....

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The Silver Bullet

2/10/2011

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Five members of StopPATH WV, Inc. traveled to Charleston this week to participate in the West Virginia Environmental Council's "E-Day" grassroots lobbying events and annual benefit dinner. Steve, Debbie, Robin, Patience and Keryn were met in Charleston by Bill Howley (The Power Line) of Calhoun County.

In between meetings with our Jefferson County delegates and senator, we staffed a table at the E-Day exhibits area in the rotunda. The folks who stopped by our table were astonished to hear that a viable alternative to PATH has been proposed by Dominion Virginia Power that costs 1/3 the price of PATH, needs no additional rights-of-way, and can be completed faster than PATH. This alternative is Dominion's Alternative One. Everyone was overwhelmingly in favor of this sensible, economic alternative that will provide West Virginia with a secure, updated electrical transmission system by simply rebuilding aged, existing transmission lines with the latest technology.

Our legislators were also impressed with this concept, and House Concurrent Resolution 58 was introduced. Briefly, the Resolution, ""...urge[s] the West Virginia Public Service Commission to halt all consideration of the PATH application currently before it, and move rapidly to approve the reconstruction/rebuilding of Monongahela Power's Pruntytown to Mt. Storm 500kV transmission line, completing the majority of the Dominion alternative to PATH which is in the best interests of West Virginia electrical customers and citizens."

Governor Tomblin was also surprised to hear all about Alternative One when we met with him.

Now is the time to contact your representatives to ask for their support for this Resolution! If you need direction in this area, please contact us!

Allegheny's paid lobbyists are telling legislators that Resolution 58 is "misleading the public." Funny, coming from someone who is paid to mislead the public, but if that's what you've heard, please see this article which backs up the facts in Res. 58.

In the evening, we attended WVEC's E-Day Benefit and Award Dinner. I was honored to receive the Laura Foreman Grassroots Activism Award, presented to me by Patience Wait, as a board member of WVEC. Patience gave a great intro. that more closely resembled a roast where she brought up some of the more entertaining moments we've had in this fight. While I am honored to receive this award, it is most properly shared with ALL the PATH opponents in three states who have stood up to two huge corporations and government on all levels and done their best to fight for what is right. No matter what crazy idea I think up, there's always one or more of you who jump right in with encouragement and full participation so this award rightfully belongs to all of us. Ali Haverty was individually recognized for all her hard work on the FERC challenge -- no small feat! I have met and befriended so many wonderful people in the nearly three years I've been involved in this fight and no matter what we face together, we rise to the occasion and persevere until we are victorious!

And now Dominion's Alternative One has been handed to us for use as the silver bullet. Lock and load, folks!