Challenging Dominion's Giant Power Line
Power line would perpetuate dirty air and global warming
Dominion Power has proposed building a massive, high-voltage transmission line through Northern Virginia that would lock the Commonwealth into reliance on conventional energy sources for decades to come, sources that pollute the air, harm public health and contribute to global warming. The massive, 500,000-volt power line would also cross or border several areas of scenic and historic significance as it carried carry electricity from dirty coal-fired power plants to high-demand urban centers around Washington D.C. and the mid-Atlantic.
©Charles Shoffner
Dominion Power, in planning to build a major electricity transmission line in Northern Virginia, is failing to invest in conservation, energy efficiency and renewable resources.
SELC is vigorously opposed to the project, as are numerous elected officials and conservation groups, and thousands of citizens. Serious questions remain about whether the additional transmission capacity is needed. Energy efficiency, conservation, and other “demand-side management” technologies can meet future energy needs without building transmission lines, according to studies from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and others.
Instead of aggressively pursuing these opportunities and technologies, Dominion is sticking with “business as usual.” Its application to build the $243 million line, filed with the State Corporation Commission (SCC) in April 2007, gives short shrift to energy efficiency and conservation. SELC will track the SCC proceedings to ensure that energy-efficient alternatives, as well as adverse impacts on Virginia’s historic, cultural, and environmental resources, are fully considered.
Dominion’s plans tie directly into a new effort by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to designate “National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors" that would essentially bypass many rules for energy projects within the corridors. On October 2, 2007 the DOE finalized a designation of mid-Atlantic corridor that includes the landscape crossed by Dominion’s proposed power line.
This "national interest" corridor designation jeopardizes Virginia’s traditional role to safeguard conservation easements and historic, natural, and cultural resources as it considers Dominion’s power-line application. If the SCC does not approve the power line within one year, Dominion could ask federal authorities to overrule the state. The national corridor designation also opens the door for the utility to seek unprecedented federal powers of eminent domain.
SELC is working with the Piedmont Environmental Council and other environmental groups to stay actively engaged in the Dominion power line. Our goal is to make sure the project complies fully with the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and other federal and state laws. We will make sure that energy efficiency and conservation are fully and legitimately considered to better protect forest habitat, water resources, historic sites, and conservation areas, and to address global warming.
