They're not fooling Len Chidester of Montrose, West Virginia.  He's heard some nasty rumors about the shoddy way FirstEnergy treats its linemen, neglects maintenance of equipment, and fails to read electric meters.  Apparently this is all being done under the mandate of some company named PJ+M. 

Mr. Chidester believes PJ+M is in bed with FirstEnergy.  If they breed, the child would probably behave a lot like this one:

Mr. Chidester concludes that FirstEnergy bought Mon Power and Potomac Edison.  FirstEnergy is bleeding these companies for every nickel they can squeeze by their phoney meter reading process, doing minimal repairs, and who knows what other practices.  And he advises that a very major investigation be launched into exactly what the power companies, FirstEnergy, Mon Power, Potomac Edison and the company PJ+M have been and are continuing to do.

He's exactly right!

The union busters at FirstEnergy are at it again.  The Herald-Mail reports that local union members have rejected FirstEnergy's contract offer.  The local union represents workers from Frederick and Washington counties in Maryland, the Waynesboro area in Pennsylvania, and West Virginia's eastern panhandle.

Union rep. Robert Whalen said that by rejecting the contract offer, union members have authorized a strike, if necessary.

But never fear, Potomac Edison customers... useless PR flack Toad Meyers has promised to keep your lights on by magic!

It must be magic, because I don't think Toad could cut it in lineman school.  I'm still waiting for him to come read my electric meter and he hasn't shown yet!  I wonder if they'll let him use a company truck for that, or will he have to use his own vehicle?  In case your lights go out, don't bother with the emergency number, call Toad:  (724) 838-6650.

I'm going to stock up on candles and gas for the generator.  I have no faith in Toad's promises.

Clean Line Energy Partners have been inspired to take their medicine show on the road in Arkansas and rent display space at local county fairs from which to sell their unneeded Plains & Eastern Clean Line.

And then the people of Arkansas happened. 

Two different opposition groups opened booths at local county fairs yesterday, and word is that Clean Line might want to bring along a good book, because they're going to be pretty lonely this week.

The final four PSC public hearings on Clean Line's Grain Belt Express project were held in Missouri last week, and the Caldwell County News has the best coverage of the Hamilton hearing.

Over the course of eight hearings spread across the state in the last month, Missouri's patient and empathetic public service commissioners listened carefully to thousands of Missourians who oppose granting eminent domain authority to Clean Line for its speculative, unneeded 700-mile transmission project.

This is a huge victory for the people of Missouri, who came together to show the PSC and Clean Line a united front.  The final hearings even attracted a dedicated contingent of opponents from neighboring Kansas, who were thrown under the bus by their own regulators last year.  And what a difference for them!  The respect that the Missouri regulators have for the people they serve was a breath of fresh air, as reported by one of the Kansans.

Many thanks to Jennifer Gatrel and Russ Pisciotta, who have dedicated themselves to this effort for the past year, and delivered for their members with the best public hearing effort possible.  The "we the people" pinnacle reached last week is their only reward for the hours of tireless work they have put into the effort.  These are the moments hard working opposition leaders live for, and the feeling is indescribable.  I'm only sorry I had to miss it due to other commitments, but I am fully confident there will be other moments of victory as this group moves into the evidentiary hearings in November and toward their ultimate victory over Clean Line!

Good job, Missouri!  You are an inspiration to transmission opposition everywhere!

A good friend of mine came up with an apt acronym for the few diehard fans of the Clean Line Energy projects.

MIMPSY:  Money In My Pocket, Screw You!

The MIMPSYs are in high gear in South Dakota, eagerly salivating at all the money they will rake in if the states of Iowa and Illinois allow their people and their land to be used to build Clean Line's money-making "road to market."

For years, Clean Line has been telling Iowa's economic development types how much money will flow into Iowa if it only forces approval of its Rock Island Clean Line project.

But, it now appears that at least a third of the riches promised to Iowa in exchange for its sacrifice will flow to South Dakota instead.

Dakota Power Community Wind has been pumping itself up in the media lately, trying to raise enough capital to build a wind farm of up to 1,000MW in eastern South Dakota.  This is nearly one-third of RICL's proposed 3,500MW capacity.

A recent article claims the benefits South Dakota will reap from the building of RICL:

But, wait, all that money is flowing directly out of the money RICL has promised to Iowa in exchange for allowing RICL to be built as a closed highway through the state.  South Dakota's windfall is coming directly from the pot of money RICL promised to Iowa!  How much more of RICL's economic promise to Iowa is going to evaporate if RICL is permitted?

Pure and simple greed can turn even the finest men and women into blinded fools.

Or MIMPSYs.  A handful of South Dakota landowners hosting turbines are expected to rake in $6 to $7 MILLION dollars per year if RICL is built.  What are the thousands of landowners hosting the line in Iowa and Illinois expected to be paid for their contribution to the effort by hosting the line?  I think I heard something like $500 annually for each tower, if the landowners accepts less than fair market value for the easement and opts for the annual payment scheme. 

Why the disparity?  Why are just a few landowners in South Dakota going to rake in $6-7 million annually, while the rest of the host "team" must settle for $500?

Stop.  Think.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Don't let greed blind you.

Mountain Party candidate for the 66th District seat in the WV House of Delegates, Danny Lutz, had great success with a petition against Potomac Edison's recent request for a 17.2% rate increase when he circulated it at the Jefferson County Fair a couple weeks ago.

Danny presented a sweet 500 signatures of protest to the PSC last week!

Miss your chance to sign the petition at the fair?  Danny's got you covered!  He's made copies of the petition available for you to sign at several supportive local businesses.

Visit these establishments and ask to sign the Potomac Edison rate increase petition:

Roger's Tire and Auto               Martinsburg
Orr's Farm Market                    Martinsburg
D&D Meats                              Inwood
Mountain View Diner                Charles Town
Hampshire's Body Shop           Kearneysville
Cantuta Cafe                           Charles Town
Needful Things                        Charles Town
Weber's Store                         Shannondale

And be sure to attend the Public Service Commission hearings on the rate increase in Shepherdstown on October 6 to watch Danny present his handiwork to the Commissioners.

If you'd like a blank copy of the petition to circulate at your business, with your friends, neighbors, or family, just ask.  Unless you're that other guy who works for the utility... he can't have my petition... or my vote.

The WV Public Service Commission issued an Order today scheduling public comment hearings on Potomac Edison's proposed 17.2% rate increase.

Two local hearings will be held in Shepherdstown at the Shepherd University Frank Center on October 6, 2014.  The first hearing begins at 1:00 p.m. and will be followed by a second hearing beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Customers are strongly encouraged to attend and sign up to speak briefly about how the proposed rate increase will affect you.  If you can't make the start time, that's okay, late arrivals will still be permitted to speak as long as they arrive before the hearing concludes.

This hearing is also the place to tell the Commission how you feel about its decision to make you pay the $7.5M cost of Potomac Edison's monthly meter reading ordered as a result the General Investigation into the company's meter reading and billing practices.

See you there!

The Amish are a peaceful people.  They rarely get involved in worldly things like electric transmission permitting battles.  They don't get involved in legal matters, even to protect their own financial interests.

But now Amish communities in three Missouri counties have submitted a petition containing 85 signatures to the Missouri Public Service Commission.  A large group of Amish also came out to the first MO PSC public hearing earlier this month, with smaller groups at the following hearings.

According to Jennifer Gatrel of BlockGBE, "They are extremely concerned. They truly believe that power lines are dangerous. Their cousins in Wisconsin suffered tremendously when their dairy cows were negatively impacted. The line would go about a mile from their school. It is truly a matter of religious freedom."

The Amish have an interesting approach to electricity.  They refuse to use the public electric grid and instead use limited amounts of electric power generated on-site.  The Amish believe that reliance on others to generate and deliver power to them would tie them too closely to the world and symbolize a physical connection to it and reliance upon it.

But, Grain Belt expects the Amish to "do their part" by voluntarily hosting a transmission line they will never find useful, in order to provide for the needs of big cities in other states, who want to make their conscience a little "greener."

Can't help but wonder... Were the Amish farms targeted when siting Grain Belt Express due to their presumed unwillingness to fight back? The fact that so many of them have signed the petition is a major break in Amish precedent.

...and they can start by overcoming their presumption that massive amounts of new overhead transmission is necessary to move to a clean energy future.  It's not.

But, CFRA is funded by ReAMP, whose "clean energy" money comes from deep pocketed and mysterious foundations and "Energy Funds".  Environmental groups are just as shady, and just as well-funded, as the fossil fuel energy interests at which they point the finger.  And the people have had enough of that nonsense!

Transmission advocacy toadie CFRA has taken the funding offered by these big green groups to act as a voice for rural landowners, and to somehow convince these landowners to accept gigantic new transmission lines across their land.  It's not working.  CFRA has done nothing but anger rural landowners, who feel that CFRA has strayed far from its mission to represent rural interests.

CFRA begins with the incorrect presumption that we MUST build massive amounts of new transmission across the midwest in order to have clean energy.

NOT TRUE!

CFRA has been rejected time and time again by the very rural landowners it pretends to represent.  But, now they're back, telling rural landowners that they can "change transmission for the better" if they simply accept it.

NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

The only thing that needs changing here is the way we go about transitioning to a clean energy future.  It's not going to happen overnight.  And it's not going to happen on a grandiose scale.  It's going to happen gradually, in the local communities, where energy can be produced at point of use.

CFRA has failed to actually LISTEN to what rural Americans are saying about energy.  They want local solutions, sustainable solutions, that don't require rural America to make a sacrifice for the needs of far-flung urban areas.  Urban areas are just as capable of developing their own local renewable energy sources and should be permitted to do so.  Instead of wasting billions on new long-distance overhead transmission, couldn't that money be better spent on sustainable solutions, such as on-site solar or offshore wind conveniently located near the big demand centers?

CFRA has failed to learn the first lesson about the people it supposedly represents  -- it's not about the money, it's about a way of life.

Loren Sprouse, a Block Grain Belt Express-Missouri member and electrical engineer, went to the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) earlier this year with his concerns about the electric fields that would be created by Grain Belt Express, and their possible corrosive effect on nearby infrastructure. In response, MoDOT has compiled a research report of the most current studies available on the subject. The report, entitled "Effects of Ground Voltage of Stray Current on Infrastructure Caused by High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission Lines," cites numerous studies which indicate that DC lines may have a harmful impact on metallic infrastructure when operated in the monopolar mode, or under emergency conditions.

Although Grain Belt Express's website claims that its project will be a bipolar line, Sprouse is still concerned about the extremely high voltage of the line, and the electric fields and stray currents it may produce.

 "This is just another example of not fully understanding the potential long term negative consequences of this project. Our regulators need to enforce extremely high design standards when reviewing such projects around distances from homes, areas where people work around and under these lines, and especially around proximity to pipelines carrying natural gas and other petroleum products," Sprouse said.

The report indicates that monopolar HVDC transmission lines have an extremely corrosive effect on adjacent infrastructure, such as pipelines. Sprouse says that electric fields will always produce some stray currents, even in Grain Belt Express's bipolar HVDC model, or alternating current (AC) transmission lines.

The report confirmed Sprouse's worry, stating "The effect of stray current corrosion on underground infrastructure has been a concern for decades. As one example, a 1967 article warned about the "stray current corrosion of underground metallic structures" caused by HVDC transmission lines. In the literature, most studies are concerned about potential damage to pipeline structures." The report also quoted a 2008 GAO report that identified a risk "associated with siting HVDC electric transmission lines along active transportation ROW ... Stray current could interfere with railroad signaling systems and highway traffic operations, and accelerate pipeline corrosion, resulting in accidents."

Curt Jacobs from Erie, Illinois, echoed the concerns of Sprouse when commenting on a pipeline explosion that occurred last August adjacent to an AC transmission line near the proposed Rock Island Clean Line route.

"This pipeline explosion opened our eyes to the dangers of power lines close to pipelines. The suggestion that DC power can be even more corrosive than AC power raises significant safety questions for those of us that would be forced to live and work near Clean Line's proposed projects and the existing pipelines the routes attempt to parallel," he said.

Block GBE spokeswoman Jennifer Gatrel is worried that siting Grain Belt Express parallel to buried pipelines for approximately 119 miles across Missouri is too risky to the families who live and work close by. Approximately 53% of the GBE proposed route is sited within a mile of the pipeline corridor.

"We are very concerned about the implications of this report. Grain Belt wants to run their massive line close to pipelines through much of the state. The report makes it clear that there could be a real and present danger of doing so," she said. "As a mother to small children the idea that they could be put in danger is not acceptable!"
 
Some of Block GBE's major concerns, in addition to safety issues, are property rights, property devaluation, health effects, and the impediments to farming posed by the lines. Citizens interested in reading the report in full or learning more about the issue can find more information at www.blockgbemo.com or by calling 660-232-1280. The public will also have a chance to weigh in on the issue directly to the Missouri PSC who will decide whether to allow Grain Belt to build the lines. The schedule is located at the group's website here.