About Those Power Lines

Funny thing about those power transmission lines. It turns out that one of the partners in that little endeavor was charging ratepayers for lobbying, and that's a big no-no. This is from an email I received.

An investigation by two West Virginia citizens has uncovered approximately $3 million that has been wrongly passed on to ratepayers footing the bill for the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline's (PATH) high-voltage line project. The 275 mile transmission line would carry coal power from West Virginia up through Virginia and Maryland.

Keryn Newman of Shepherdstown and Alison Haverty of Chloe, filed a Preliminary Challenge to PATH's Formula Rate showing that the company improperly charged lobbying expenses, work of its propaganda arm (PATH Education and Awareness Team), membership dues for groups like the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), and over half a million on "reliable power coalitions" in each of the three states, to ratepayers under the guise of construction and development costs. Newman and Haverty are both customers of Allegheny Energy, who has partnered with AEP on PATH.

"The challenge to PATH's formula rate reinforces what the Sierra Club has been saying for years," said Jim Kotcon, Chair of the Energy Committee for the West Virginia Chapter. "Ratepayers should not have to pay for PATH's lobbying and advertising campaigns because the project simply is not needed."

Details of the legal challenge are available.

The PATH line is currently under consideration by the SCC here in Virginia. Leesburg's own Joe May has been an instrumental supporter of various power line projects and the power industry in general.

It would be interesting for someone, or some newspaper, to do a similar investigation of Dominion Power's rates and expenditures.