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How Dare you, Dominion!

8/8/2017

5 Comments

 
I was completely floored to hear how rude, insulting and arrogant Mr. Chuck Penn of Dominion was on the Kojo Nnamdi radio show yesterday.  Shame on you, Chuck!  You sure didn't paint your company in a good light.  In fact, you only served to create new enemies.  I'm one.

Now, I met Mr. Penn several years ago and he was quite the friendly personality.  But, then again, he was getting what he wanted at the time (and so was I).  Either he's been drinking too much Arrogant Bastard ale of late, or he's really been a nasty person all along.

The story presented on the show concerns a transmission project Dominion wants to build in Prince William County, Va.  The transmission line is "necessary" to serve a proposed new data center owned by an Amazon subsidiary.  And Dominion wants to run it through private property.  Of course, the affected landowners objected.  Their local elected county officials responded by backing the landowners.  Dominion's "preferred route" was blocked by the creation of a conservation easement along the route.  The Virginia State Corporation Commission then selected the next route option that plows through the nearby Carver Road community.  Carver Road is an historic African-American community.  Dominion (and Mr. Penn on the radio) played this up as a rich, white community dumping unwanted infrastructure on a less affluent African-American community.  This is the stuff movies are made of, right?  Except the Carver Road community has joined forces with the community on the original route to oppose the transmission line on any route.  The original group is fighting just as hard to have the route moved out of Carver Road as they did to have it moved out of their own neighborhood.  This is the epitome of a community working together to benefit everyone, despite Mr. Penn's best efforts to portray it as racial.  I'm guessing that Mr. Penn doesn't speak for Carver Road... after all, he works for Dominion.  Mr. Penn thinks the county should release the easement so Dominion can build its project along the original route.

How about this?  How about Dominion doesn't build its project at all?

Opponents said that the data center isn't even a sure thing, and even if it was, this project is nothing more than a gigantic service line, necessary only to serve the data center. 

There is a route that goes along the highway and comprises some buried sections of line.  The Virginia SCC says they did not select that route because it was "too expensive."  Penn said that route would cost $100M more than tearing up one of the affected neighborhoods with an overhead line.  And then Dominion and the SCC sit around and talk about how all ratepayers in the region will pay for the transmission line so they need to build it as cheaply as possible.

The opposition pointed out that 97% of the transmission line benefit will be for Amazon and asked why Amazon isn't paying 97% of the cost?  If you or I built a house up on a remote mountain and then wanted electric service, we'd have to pay to run our service line from the nearest distribution line.  This project is nothing more than that on a grand scale.  Why should Amazon have no cost responsibility for its own service line?  Because of economic development, jobs, taxes, and all the wonderful things it could possibly bring to Prince William County?  Who did the cost benefit analysis on that to prove that the benefits of the data center are greater than the cost to the ratepayers?

And then we get down to the fundamental question... why must a handful of landowners sacrifice their economic and environmental well-being to host a transmission line for a data center that economically benefits the entire region?  If the project can be built on a more expensive route that nobody objects to, and Amazon covers the cost of its service line, where's the harm to the ratepayers of using the more expensive route?  The true cost of a transmission project is one that finds a route that doesn't harm anyone.  If that includes burial, so be it.

The idea that certain segments of society (either black or white) must sacrifice for the whole is outdated and unacceptable any longer.  This isn't the 1930's when that was necessary to electrify the country.  "But for" the data center, this project isn't necessary.

I find Dominion's attempt to play communities against each other completely disgusting. Instead, the communities should be fighting their common enemy, Dominion.  The communities are to be commended for refusing to fall for Chuck's ruse.  United they stand, divided they fall.

And Chuck should quit being so ugly to people.  I'm sure his momma taught him better than that. 
5 Comments

Abandoned PATH Properties, Get Your Abandoned PATH Properties Here!

8/8/2017

1 Comment

 
PATH is holding a fire sale this month on all those abandoned properties it purchased nearly 10 years ago.  Need a gigantic farm property that's not zoned for an electric substation? 
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How about a nice vacation cabin in West Virginia that's been sitting vacant and rotting for years? 
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Or perhaps you're in the market for a big lot in a very exclusive Loudoun County, Virginia, subdivision and you don't mind having high voltage transmission lines running through the middle of your property?
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Then don't miss these PATH absolute auctions on August 22 and August 23!

Finally, 5 years after the PATH 765-kV transmission line project was officially abandoned by PJM Interconnection and the PATH companies, the property PATH bought with your money is being auctioned off.  PATH has been marketing some of these properties for years, with no takers.  What kind of a property is marketed for 5 years with no offers?  What's wrong with these properties?  Buyer beware!

While actively seeking to build the project between 2008 and 2011, PATH purchased outright around $30M worth of real estate to be used as future substations and right of way for its transmission project.  Each property has some story attached that serves as an excuse for purchasing it way above its market value at that point in time.  Need an ending point for your project?  Purchase a farm zoned agricultural and then set about battling the county about re-zoning it.  Need to have a conservation easement lifted?  Purchase a bunch of property near the easement and then hire lobbyists to influence the governmental entity that holds the easement to release it.  See an opportunity property where the owners are struggling financially?  Purchase it now and worry about how you may use it later.  After all, it's not YOUR money, it's coming out of electric ratepayer wallets, and you're earning a big fat return on every dollar you spend.

How much return?  Well, initially, 14.3%, later 12.9%, later still 10.9%, even later 10.4%, and finally, 8.11%.  As long as you own those properties, you may collect the corresponding return on your investment from ratepayers. 

But when you sell the properties, you must credit the sale price to your unpaid balance upon which the return is calculated.  For example, if the balance of your investment is $100, and you sell a property that is included in that balance for $5, then your new balance is $95.  An 10% return on $100 is $10.  A 10% return on $95 is $9.50.  So, by holding onto your properties as long as possible, you will collect the maximum amount of return.  So it really wouldn't help your profit margin to sell these unneeded properties quickly.  You must hold on to them until the rest of the ratepayer debt is paid and a regulator orders you to dispose of them, then auction them off at fire sale prices and make the ratepayers pay all the auction and commission expenses off the top of the credit they will realize from the sale of property.  And then you can hope the ratepayers don't find out about it.

Whoopsie!!!

So, for all those PATH opponents who have been living in suspended animation for the past 5 years wondering if PATH was going to dream up another project to use those properties for a transmission line, you're released from your continuing torture.  The PATH companies are finally going away and won't be using the properties for a future transmission project.  Now you only have to worry about what a new owner may do with the properties.  And how much you ultimately paid, of course.  Creative accounting, and feigned uncertainty combined with a failure to effectively market vacant property, will squeeze the last possible penny out of your wallet.

PATH... the gift that keeps on taking.

How do these guys sleep at night?
1 Comment

Grain Belt Express's Worst Nightmare

8/8/2017

2 Comments

 
Legal transcripts contain an index.  The transcript of last week's Missouri Public Service Commission Oral Argument in the Grain Belt Express case includes the word "nightmare."
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There was a bit of debate regarding exactly what constitutes Grain Belt Express's worst nightmare.  PSC Chairman Hall thought issuing a non-appealable favorable finding (but not a permit) for GBE to use as leverage for assent of county commissions would create GBE's "worst nightmare" of hanging in limbo forever.  However, GBE's attorney was quick to correct him.  He said dismissal of the application was GBE's "worst nightmare," because dismissal means the project is dead.  Chairman Hall started to disagree, then changed his mind.  I still think a dead project is better than a limbo project, at least it has finality and stops costing the investors money that maybe they don't want to invest anymore.

Chairman Hall thought GBE's idea that a "favorable finding" by the PSC would convince the counties to give assent to the project "naive."

CHAIRMAN HALL: Yes, I have a few. I want to start with your alternative argument that
the Commission go through the Tartan analysis, determine that Grain Belt has met each of those factors, but then withhold issuing the certificate. Would that be an appealable decision?
MR. ZOBRIST:  I think it would be because if you construe Neighbors United to say that you cannot issue a CCN, you're making these other findings and you're simply withholding it at that point. To be honest, I really haven't thought through that. It may be -- it depends on what your language is. I think if you say that this part is final, you view it as appealable, that that might be something for us to take a look at because it may not be an appealable order until either --
CHAIRMAN HALL: I think that would be your worst-case scenario. Then you're sitting in limbo here and you can't take the order up. MR. ZOBRIST: Well, I'm being the optimist, Chairman. I'm assuming we get favorable  factual findings on the public convenience and necessity. We'd use those to go to the county commissions and say the Public Service Commission has weighed in and says the public is not going to be harmed and you should issue your county assents and then we'll be back.  Now, if you -- if you deny it, if you dismiss it, then I think --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, that's --

MR. ZOBRIST: Pardon me. Go ahead.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That, to be perfectly blunt, seems a little naive to me that this commission's decision on public interest is going to sway the county commissions, and so --
MR. ZOBRIST: Like I said --

CHAIRMAN HALL: I think the reality is that that would be almost your worst nightmare because then the case just sits in limbo here and you can't take it up on appeal.
MR. ZOBRIST: Well, let me put it
this way. The nightmare is if you just dismiss it out of hand because then the project's dead. The
problem -- 
CHAIRMAN HALL: I would say that's better than this because at least then -- oh, okay.   I'm sorry. I'm with you now. Keep going.

The transcript also contains derivatives of the word "baffle."  As in
I mean, I completely understand Mr. Zobrist's argument. I'm baffled by yours.
So said Chairman Hall regarding MJMEUC's argument that the ATXI decision supports the issuance of a conditional permit for GBE.

I'm thinking that the hearing did not go well for GBE.  Chairman Hall did not seem to be buying the arguments that the ATXI decision wasn't relevant to the GBE case.  In order to declare the ATXI decision inapposite, GBE would have had to distinguish itself from ATXI, and it completely failed to do so.  Instead it put forth arguments that were "naive" and "baffling" that urged the Commission to defy the courts and issue a CCN with language that tells the court their ATXI decision was wrong.  If the Missouri Supreme Court declined to do so, it's not the place of the PSC to attempt to re-interpret the law.  The law is clear, and the courts have spoken.  Done.

And speaking of specious arguments, the attorney for the Sierra Club and other parties really stepped in it.  He told the Commission,
We've also raised the possibility of a county veto being in violation of federal law, and this is based solely on my general knowledge, but it seems that local interference with interstate commerce and electricity would violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Federal Power Act gives FERC authority over interstate transmission lines. The state still has authority to regulate the siting of interstate transmission lines, but they're otherwise preempted.
This guy's "general knowledge" is flat out wrong.  The Federal Power Act only gives FERC authority over interstate transmission RATES.  It does not give them permitting or siting authority.  FERC cannot approve transmission projects.  The states have complete jurisdiction over the siting and permitting of interstate transmission lines and are not "preempted" from acting.  With this kind of stellar legal analysis, can we believe anything this guy says?  The Sierra Club needs to mind its own business and stop trying to interfere in state transmission permitting cases.  They only succeed in making themselves irrelevant.

So now it's up to the Missouri PSC to decide what to do with this case.  The ATXI decision does preclude the issuance of a CCN for GBE.  Any attempt to go around it, as suggested by GBE and its sycophants, will most likely be struck down by the courts.  GBE's attorney has to recognize this.  He seemed nearly hysterical in his anger and frustration when it appeared that he failed to convince the Commissioners to go along with his "path forward."  Remember, the nightmare isn't keeping this case in limbo, but in dismissing it.  While logical thinking says that limbo is the worst thing that could happen, for some reason GBE is looking forward to it.  It's almost as if GBE is already hanging in limbo, unable to unlock enough cash to continue operations unless it receives some sort of "favorable" opinion from the MO PSC.  It doesn't seem to matter if the favorable opinion hangs the project in legal limbo, or results in a future court vacating the favorable opinion.  It's all about having that piece of paper right now. 

The Missouri Public Service Commission holds the key to the Clean Line money vault.  Without it, the project is dead... and likely the other Clean Line projects as well.  In the wilds of Mayberry, an animal so injured it cannot recover is put out of its misery.  It's a kindness to end its suffering.  GBE is suffering.  It cannot be saved.  It's time...
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    About the Author

    Keryn Newman blogs here at StopPATH WV about energy issues, transmission policy, misguided regulation, our greedy energy companies and their corporate spin.
    In 2008, AEP & Allegheny Energy's PATH joint venture used their transmission line routing etch-a-sketch to draw a 765kV line across the street from her house. Oooops! And the rest is history.

    About
    StopPATH Blog

    StopPATH Blog began as a forum for information and opinion about the PATH transmission project.  The PATH project was abandoned in 2012, however, this blog was not.

    StopPATH Blog continues to bring you energy policy news and opinion from a consumer's point of view.  If it's sometimes snarky and oftentimes irreverent, just remember that the truth isn't pretty.  People come here because they want the truth, instead of the usual dreadful lies this industry continues to tell itself.  If you keep reading, I'll keep writing.


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