EC March 2008

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17 discussions

Fwd: Stop the Towers Update
by Duane330＠aol.com 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

____________________________________ From: website(a)stopthetowers.org Sent: 3/11/2008 3:49:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time Subj: Stop the Towers Update March 9, 2008 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Here is latest update on the Stop the Towers efforts and related issues. You can always find the latest at the website and on the ECCO Hotline at 724-267-3040. Please stay involved and work to keep all your friends and neighbors informed. Buses Are Filling Up The PUC Evidentiary Hearings in Pittsburgh are just two weeks away and the buses are filling up! Beginning at 10:00 am on March 24th at the State Office Building, the Public Utility Commission will begin hearings on the proposed AP TrAIL. To assist the residents in Washington and Greene Counties, Stop the Towers is organizing buses to take you up and back for the hearings. For less than the cost of gas and parking, not to mention you won’t have to worry about fighting the traffic, you can ride a bus with other Stop the Towers supporters and be dropped off in front of the State Office Building. Please contact Rebecca Foley (_rfoley1(a)windstream.net_ (mailto:rfoley1@windstream.net) ) as soon as possible to reserve your seat. Departure and return times will be available from Rebecca. TrAIL Co Sends Insulting Letter to ALJ’s We believe it is important to have YOU attend the Evidentiary Hearings. Apparently, TrAIL Co does not! Earlier this week, TrAIL Co sent a letter to the Administrative Law Judges asking them to issue an order about proper decorum in the courtroom. They caution the ALJ’s by asking for “observers in the hearing room is (be) closely monitored for everyone's safety, and to permit sufficient room for all the parties, counsel, witnesses and staff before making space available for observers.” TrAIL Co is worried that we won’t properly behave and would disrupt the proceedings. They point to the Public Input Hearings and said that the supporters of TrAIL were “concerned about their personal safety in returning to their vehicles”. First of all, isn’t that ironic that the same company that has been sending land agents onto our properties, harassing and intimidating people in their own homes, is now worried about that same kind of behavior. Secondly, never has Stop the Towers encouraged nor supported such behavior and we certainly are not now! We simply believe that it is important to continue to put faces to the rural Americans whose lives will be destroyed or at the very least severely disrupted should this unnecessary, greed-driven proposal be approved!! So what are you going to do? Contact Rebecca and reserve your seat now!!! DOE does it Again! Once again, the Department of Energy has ignored everyone, except the utility companies that will profit greatly, by denying all requests for Re-Hearings on the NIETC designations. Even with a number of environmental groups filing lawsuit against the designations, the DOE continues to support a flawed energy policy that will encourage long-distant transmission lines coming from the highly polluting, coal-fired generation plants rather than cleaner, safer alternatives. Better alternatives which include demand-side management programs, conservation, upgrading existing infrastructure and the most reasonable solution, building the generation plants near the demand. Utility companies benefit greatly from section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as they will be granted profits of up to 14% or more, passing ALL costs on to the rate payers and all the while taking property and destroying the lives of rural Americans. This is exactly what is happening here in southwestern Pennsylvania with the proposed AP TrAIL! Fortunately, most environmental groups and at least some of our Congressman see the flaws in this policy. We must be thankful for people like Senator Casey and the others that recently requested Senate hearings on section 1221. (You can see the letter on the Stop the Towers website)Please continue to encourage Senator Casey and others to push for the complete repeal of Section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Specifically here in Pennsylvania, please contact Senator Specter (contact info below) and encourage him to support a complete repeal of the above Act. Senator Specter did sign Senator Casey’s letter asking for the hearings and he is listening. But we must contact him and tell him our concerns because you can be sure the utility industry lobbyists are talking with him every chance they get. If he is not hearing from us, how is he to know what we are going experiencing? Please email the Senator now. We need him on our side! Senator Arlen Specter - United States Senator Pittsburgh Office: Washington Office: Regl. Entrprs. Twr. 711 Hart Building 425 6th Ave- Suite 1450 Washington, D.C. 20510 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Phone: (202) 224-4254 Phone: (412) 644-3400 Fax: (412) 644-4871 Website: specter.senate.gov Pittsburgh Office Staff Members _Marybeth_McGowan(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:Marybeth_McGowan@specter.senate.gov) _stan_caldwell(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:stan_caldwell@specter.senate.gov) _adam_pope(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:adam_pope@specter.senate.gov) Stop the Towers! For more information, go to _http://www.stopthetowers.org/_ (http://www.stopthetowers.org/) . If you feel you have received this email in error or no longer wish to receive messages from Stop the Towers, a grassroots organization dedicated to stopping the AP TrAIL, please reply to this email with REMOVE in the subject line. **************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & Finance. (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)

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Fwd: Senate to weigh DOE's power to overrule states; Law allows agency to dictate placement of power
by James Kotcon 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

I think it may be important to send more letters to the Senators on this committee (see below). It should also be important to find out if the Manchin Administration will offer testimony in opposition to NIETC. JBK >>> "Vivian Stockman" <vivian(a)ohvec.org> 3/10/2008 10:32 AM >>> Senate to weigh DOE's power to overrule states Law allows agency to dictate placement of power lines http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08069/863024-58.stm Sunday, March 09, 2008 By Janice Crompton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Opponents of a high-voltage power line project in Washington and Greene counties have received encouraging news. Last week, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said it would hold hearings to review how the U.S. Department of Energy is implementing its controversial transmission corridor program. The program allows the federal government to overrule state decisions about placement of electric transmission lines. It allows property to be taken for the lines using eminent domain, and has faced harsh criticism in recent months. Also new on the power line front, the state Public Utility Commission will begin evidentiary hearings March 24 on the application of Greensburg-based Allegheny Power to build the Pennsylvania portion of a proposed 240-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line. The line would extend from Washington and Greene counties in Pennsylvania to existing substations in West Virginia and end in northern Virginia. Allegheny's 210-mile portion of the line would cost $820 million to build, with the total project estimated at more than $1 billion. The smaller portion of the line would be constructed and paid for by Dominion Virginia Power, which serves customers in Virginia. Allegheny Power, calling the project the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Project, or TrAIL, has already provided the PUC with testimony from 19 witnesses, while a local opposition group, the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania, has responded with three experts. The company is facing challenges from more than just local groups, though. Company testimony regarding the need for the power line so far has been rebutted by two witnesses for the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate, and from a supervisor from the PUC Office of Trial Staff, who called the application "premature at best." PUC Supervisor Gary Yocca questioned Allegheny Power's application after analysis, testifying that the company had not yet done enough to merit approval of the application. Mr. Yocca said that while the company says the new power line is needed to address anticipated local system failures and brownouts within the next several years, he questioned whether there could be less costly and intrusive methods. He said the company failed to follow through on an assessment of the environmental impact of the project and apparently no federal or state agency examined the project. Mr. Yocca said there are questions about the effects on farmland, forest land, plants and wildlife, and the significance for historic and archaeological sites. Other consequences loom And, while he took note of local residents' objections to the scenic dilemma presented by high-voltage transmission towers, Mr. Yocca warned of far more serious consequences. In his testimony, Mr. Yocca reminded PUC board members of the longwall coal mining operations peppering Washington and Greene counties and of the susceptible limestone ground structure. He said the 125-foot to 150-foot transmission towers could be affected by future mining operations or mine subsidence. "If subsidence occurs under a [high voltage transmission line] tower, the results could be catastrophic," he said. Allegheny Energy spokesman David Neurohr said the company will address rebuttal testimony from the PUC and other sources during the evidentiary hearings. "That will be the process," he said. "That is what they are for." Will Burns, a lawyer with the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania, said his group is gearing up for the fight against the power company and said he appreciates the work by Pennsylvania's state and national legislative delegations. He said the decision by the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to hold hearings "was indicative of how important Pennsylvania legislators think this is." A team of 38 Democratic state legislators, led by state House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, recently urged the Senate committee to investigate the implementation of a provision in the Energy Act of 2005 that gives the federal government jurisdiction over what has traditionally been state land-use decisions. Mr. DeWeese's letter to the committee came on the heels of one sent by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey earlier last month. Energy law at issue Pennsylvania, along with a number of states, has objected to the Department of Energy designating a large swath of the Northeast and parts of the Southwest as a national interest electric transmission corridor -- or NIETC. The Mid-Atlantic designation in the Northeast, which encompasses eight states, the District of Columbia, and 50 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, means the federal government will have the right to overrule state decisions involving the location of electric transmission lines and to take private property through eminent domain for such projects. If a state denies a construction permit to a power company, makes no decision within a year, or places too many restrictions on the company, it would have the right to seek a permit from the federal government if the project is within a NIETC. Already, Southern California Edison has asked federal regulators to approve the siting of a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line through Arizona after that state denied approval last year, saying it didn't want to be an "extension cord for California." Late last month, a vice president for Dominion Virginia Power testified that the company would not rule out seeking federal intervention if state approval is denied. Mr. Casey has become the national voice against the large regional corridors, which critics say defy the intent of the law -- to address electric reliability and congestion after the 2003 blackout in the northeast U.S. Senators, governors and others have proposed that the corridors be of reasonable size and include critically congested areas in need of transmission and new generation. Local groups have expressed concern that Western Pennsylvania's relatively cheap coal-fired electricity will be shipped to the power-starved East Coast. Senate to air concerns Mr. Casey and other legislators have tried obstructing and amending the law to no avail. Mr. Casey even threatened to delay the renomination of Joseph Kelliher, Federal Energy Regulatory Committee chairman, to block implementation of the NIETC. The most serious concerns raised by officials include the failure by the DOE to consult with states before the final NIETC designation and to assess transmission needs and alternatives. Another major concern was the lack of alterations to the draft NIETC proposals last year. After more than 2,000 comments from the public, along with state and local officials, the DOE published the final designation with only token changes. Last month, Mr. Casey sent a letter signed by 14 other senators to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urging Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, ranking member Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, to delve further into how the transmission corridor program is being administered. Last week, Leon Lowery, a member of the professional staff for the committee, said there would be a hearing on the NIETC issues. "There will be a number of hearings on electricity issues," he said. "Among those things are the corridor issues." Mr. Lowery said there has been no schedule set yet for the hearings, but that the transmission corridors would likely not receive a separate hearing. Janice Crompton can be reached at jcrompton(a)post-gazette.com or 724-223-0156. First published on March 9, 2008 at 12:00 am

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Fwd: REMINDER: National Coal Campaign Activist Call Wednesday, March 12
by Paul Wilson 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

I will be traveling up to the Blue-Green Conf. in Pittsburgh tomorrow, so if there is some other folks that could sit in on this call that would be helpful. The section on Mercury would be esp. useful to us I believe. thanks, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alice McKeown <Alice.McKeown(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 10:59 AM Subject: REMINDER: National Coal Campaign Activist Call Wednesday, March 12 To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org *NOTE: Please make sure to check out our Clubhouse Coal Headquarters http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/conservation/energy/coal/Default.aspx * Our next national coal campaign activist call will be Wednesday, March 12th at 8:00 p.m. eastern/ 5:00 p.m. pacific. Please join us for an update on the campaign, a discussion on how the mercury court ruling may affect your local plant, and an open forum for your questions. Dial: 866-501-6174 Code: 224.0743# Agenda 1. Welcome and campaign updates including recent news and victories (15 minutes) 2. Mercury: What the recent ruling means for activism, legal strategy, and stopping new plants (15 minutes) 3. Open forum Many thanks, Alice ________________________________ Alice McKeown Sierra Club National Coal Campaign tel: 202.675.6271 fax: 202.547.6009 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-6975

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livebetter magazine - Newburg WV
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 10 Mar '08

10 Mar '08

I picked up a new magazine (started Jan 2008) in Office Depot yesterday called livebetter: http://www.centerforabetterlife.com/eng/magazine/ Here is how they describe their "sustainability" purpose: http://www.centerforabetterlife.com/eng/about/ They have some interesting partners, and they are located in Newburg, WV. Perhaps we should get on their list. Does anyone know anything about them? -Jonathan

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FW: DOE Affirms National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designations
by Grubb, Karen 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

-----Original Message----- From: nietcwebmaster(a)anl.gov [mailto:nietcwebmaster@anl.gov] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 7:24 PM To: Grubb, Karen Subject: DOE Affirms National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designations ************************************************************ National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors ************************************************************ DOE Affirms National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designations The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today denied requests for rehearing of the Mid-Atlantic and the Southwest Area National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (National Corridors) designated by DOE in October 2007 as areas of significant electricity congestion and constraint. The designation of national corridors was made in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). In affirming the National Corridor designations today, DOE dismissed as being without merit challenges raised by the applicants for rehearing, citing extensive data analysis conducted in its 2006 National Interest Electric Transmission study, ample opportunity for public review and comment, and several other key reasons. The order and a related press release are available on the "Order Denying Rehearing" page on the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors and Congestion Study Web site at http://nietc.anl.gov/index.cfm For More Information ******************** For more information about the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors and Congestion Study, visit the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors and Congestion Study Web site at (http://nietc.anl.gov/index.cfm), or contact us at: nietcwebmaster(a)anl.gov Forward This Message ******************** Please forward this message to any party you feel may be interested in the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors and Congestion Study. _________________CONTACTS/SUBSCRIPTIONS_____________________ FEEDBACK -------- To submit feedback, contact the webmaster at nietcwebmaster(a)anl.gov PRIVACY POLICY -------------- Our online privacy policy is at: http://www.energy.gov/privacy.htm SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE --------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe to the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors and Congestion Study e-mail service, visit: http://nietc.anl.gov/email/index.cfm If the above URL is not enabled as a link, please copy it into your browser window to access our E-Mail Services Page. ************************************************************ You are currently subscribed as: kgrubb(a)fairmontstate.edu ************************************************************

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CLEANBRIER - please please please write a letter
by Beth Little 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

The WGC plant proponents are mounting a petition campaign to convince Senator Byrd to help them raise another $25 million, despite the fact that they are way over budget, out of money and have defaulted on their loans, which were guaranteed by the WV Development Office. The $25 million is so they can borrow $300 million with municipal bonds through Citigroup and get a grant from the US DOE for over $100 million. This use of taxpayers funds for a bad idea must stop. Letters are better than petitions. Please write a letter to Senator Byrd (and you can send copies to Rahall and Manchin). AND SEND A COPY TO ME SO WE WILL KNOW HOW OUR LETTER CAMPAIGN IS GOING. AND FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE YOU CAN THINK OF. Attached is the text from our fact sheet. If you can't open it, or want more details, just let me know. Byrd's address in Charleston (works better than DC; email and fax work too): Senator Robert C. Byrd 300 Virginia St, #2630 Charleston, WV 25301 fax: 304-343-7144 email: from his website - http://byrd.senate.gov/ Rahall's address: Representative Nick Rahall 301 Prince St. Beckley, WV 25801 fax: 202-225-9061 email: nrahall(a)mail.house.gov Manchin's address: Governor Joe Manchin 1900 Kanawha Boulevard E Charleston, WV 25305 Email: Governor(a)WVGov.org Beth Little HC 64 Box 281 Hillsboro, WV 24946 304-653-4277 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.21.5/1314 - Release Date: 3/5/2008 6:38 PM

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CLEANBRIER - report on public meeting Tues night
by Beth Little 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

Report is attached. If you have trouble accessing it, let me know and I'll send it in the message. It occurred to me to mount a counter petition, but on second thought, I think we should just have a letter writing campaign. They are much more effective than petitions, and it's about time we let Byrd know what we think about this boondoggle. As my roomate said when I told her the WGC guys want Byrd to bail them out, she said, "I don't want any more of my tax dollars spent on a coal fired power plant. I want health care, out of Iraq, my roads fixed, education cleaned up." So read at least the first part of this report and be thinking about what you want to say to Senator Byrd. I'll send another message with those talking points about the cogen plant and Byrd's address. Also, I'm working on setting up a meeting next week to plan a response and to distribute green bags. Beth Little HC 64 Box 281 Hillsboro, WV 24946 304-653-4277 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.21.4/1313 - Release Date: 3/5/2008 9:50 AM

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