Transmission companies use the same playbook every time. By now, I know it by heart.
Projects are planned by the regional grid operator that many people don't even know exists. Although the process is open to "stakeholders," those stakeholders have no idea that such an organization is planning a new transmission project that is going to cross their land and, perhaps, take their home. Once approved by the grid operator, the utilities conduct secret meetings and grease the right palms. They engage with your state agencies and elected officials to convince them that the project is a good idea. It's all one big, happy party... SECRET happy party. Your elected officials and your state agencies don't engage you or send notice. They leave that up to the utility, and the utility doesn't want you to know until it's so far into the routing process that you can't have any real impact on where it goes. You're supposed to remain dumb and happy until the last minute. Then the utility springs it on you as a fait accompli and conducts a farcical public information and notification process. At this point, they hope you're out of options and that you will jump into action to push the project off yourself and onto your neighbor. That's the first reaction of the vast majority of people, until someone finally figures out it's not about where it goes, it's about whether it goes.
But, until you finally receive notice, you should know that the utility has been very busy consulting with everyone except the landowner who would be forced to host the transmission line on his property. And don't you know it, NextEra has been very busy trying to schmooze a path for its portion of the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link (MARL). This presentation recently surfaced, although it's been common knowledge to a bunch of people who were hiding it from you for months.
Projects are planned by the regional grid operator that many people don't even know exists. Although the process is open to "stakeholders," those stakeholders have no idea that such an organization is planning a new transmission project that is going to cross their land and, perhaps, take their home. Once approved by the grid operator, the utilities conduct secret meetings and grease the right palms. They engage with your state agencies and elected officials to convince them that the project is a good idea. It's all one big, happy party... SECRET happy party. Your elected officials and your state agencies don't engage you or send notice. They leave that up to the utility, and the utility doesn't want you to know until it's so far into the routing process that you can't have any real impact on where it goes. You're supposed to remain dumb and happy until the last minute. Then the utility springs it on you as a fait accompli and conducts a farcical public information and notification process. At this point, they hope you're out of options and that you will jump into action to push the project off yourself and onto your neighbor. That's the first reaction of the vast majority of people, until someone finally figures out it's not about where it goes, it's about whether it goes.
But, until you finally receive notice, you should know that the utility has been very busy consulting with everyone except the landowner who would be forced to host the transmission line on his property. And don't you know it, NextEra has been very busy trying to schmooze a path for its portion of the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link (MARL). This presentation recently surfaced, although it's been common knowledge to a bunch of people who were hiding it from you for months.
| marl_schmooze.pdf |
Perhaps your most important take away from this little peek into what's been going on behind your back is this slide. Click to download the above file to see a larger version.
This is the roadmap of NextEra's routing process. The red box is where "we" are. It's a point called "Engage Counties and KEY STAKEHOLDER With Preliminary Route." Right... KEY STAKEHOLDER... but that doesn't include the most important KEY of all... the landowners who will be asked to host this project. When are impacted landowners notified? Three turns away at "Open Houses", which is nearly the last pit stop on this highway to hell. By that time, everyone else that won't see it from their house has been consulted about the route and brought on board. Landowners come last on this journey.
Landowners are presented with a couple of routing options and are expected to spend all their time fighting each other over where it goes, instead of joining forces against the real enemy. And they call this "community consultation"... when the decision has already been made.
DAD - Decide, Announce, Defend. DAD is a top-down, minimally participatory method of public management. You're sheep and they are the sheepdogs. This never works on a smart, engaged public because the last "D" never ends. People won't give up when their very home is on the line. And when the utilities are put on the defensive, they say and do the stupidest things, most of them dishonest. Nobody is buying it. We all know how to smell a rat. Propaganda is a useless waste of money.
So, what else is in that power point? Well, there's a full map of the MARL project, including FirstEnergy's portion. NextEra has been pretending that the eastern part of the project doesn't exist and that their project simply ends in Frederick County, Virginia.
Landowners are presented with a couple of routing options and are expected to spend all their time fighting each other over where it goes, instead of joining forces against the real enemy. And they call this "community consultation"... when the decision has already been made.
DAD - Decide, Announce, Defend. DAD is a top-down, minimally participatory method of public management. You're sheep and they are the sheepdogs. This never works on a smart, engaged public because the last "D" never ends. People won't give up when their very home is on the line. And when the utilities are put on the defensive, they say and do the stupidest things, most of them dishonest. Nobody is buying it. We all know how to smell a rat. Propaganda is a useless waste of money.
So, what else is in that power point? Well, there's a full map of the MARL project, including FirstEnergy's portion. NextEra has been pretending that the eastern part of the project doesn't exist and that their project simply ends in Frederick County, Virginia.
But it's clearly shown on a map that the end of NextEra's MARL is simply the HANDOFF POINT. That's where their transmission line connects directly to FirstEnergy's transmission line.
We're all in this together, folks! Landowners and communities impacted by NextEra's MARL are in the same boat as landowners impacted by FirstEnergy's MARL. Neither one of these line sections can happen without the other. Kill one, kill them both.
Here's what the landowners impacted by NextEra's MARL are facing:
Here's what the landowners impacted by NextEra's MARL are facing:
Landowners on FirstEnergy's portion are facing the tear down of an existing 138-kV transmission line, expansion of the existing easement at least 100 feet, and the building of a new 500kV line with a 138kV circuit on the same new towers.
Pay attention, people! It's coming! Although the most FirstEnergy has done is threaten to "survey" its existing easements on its part of this project, you should also know that they are working behind the scenes, much like NextEra, to schmooze KEY STAKEHOLDERS to accept the project before you even realize that they've decided on a route across your property. The announcement will come later, with Open Houses of our own. By that time, the route is set in stone. Be prepared to fight!
Pay attention, people! It's coming! Although the most FirstEnergy has done is threaten to "survey" its existing easements on its part of this project, you should also know that they are working behind the scenes, much like NextEra, to schmooze KEY STAKEHOLDERS to accept the project before you even realize that they've decided on a route across your property. The announcement will come later, with Open Houses of our own. By that time, the route is set in stone. Be prepared to fight!
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