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<-- Stay informed!Updated: September 14th, 2012
PATH is officially dead! – No longer suspended!
The Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) is finally and officially dead!
PJM, the regional authority for transmission, announced on Monday that the PJM Board during a phone conference Friday decided to remove the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) and Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) lines from PJM’s regional transmission plans, based on the PJM staff’s recommendations.
This is a wonderful example of how citizen activists can make a difference even fighting a large corporation with money, lawyers and political connections!
Some said “Resistance is futile!”
Citizens armed with facts, energy, and determination can stop projects that are unnecessary.
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The Frederick County Commissioners approved an addition to the Frederick County Ordinance which would restrict substations to industrial zones in the county!
September 6, 2012
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Frederick News Post - Editorial on Termination of PATH
August 29, 2012
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PJM Terminates PATH
August 28, 2012
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Frederick News Post - Article on Termination of PATH
August 28, 2012
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Press Release 08-27-2012
Citizen Activism Saves Electric Ratepayers Millions
The Board of Managers of PJM, the regional grid manager announced the cancelation of the PATH project today. After five years claiming the project was essential for the reliability of the electric grid and lights would go out if PATH was not constructed; they finally acknowledged their forecasts were inaccurate and accepted the fact that less costly solutions will resolve any reliability concerns.
Sugarloaf Conservancy was formed in August 2008, in response to the announcement of PATH, not initially opposing the project but only asking for investigation of alternative technologies. In August 2009, after extensive research including PJM and Department of Energy forecasts we then opposed the project as it became clear to us there was no need.
This project was driven by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rate guarantee of 14.3% granted in early 2008. In February 2011, after being forced in the Virginia PATH case to admit lack of need, PJM acknowledged they could not justify the line, but they refused to abandon PATH. They chose instead to place the project in abeyance, hoping to justify it sometime in the future.
Five years after announcing the project, with countless hours and money spent by citizens in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, the project has been abandoned. Citizens should never be subject to confiscation of their property by Eminent Domain, solely to generate profits for electric companies. Before an application to build a new transmission line is accepted by the Maryland Public Service Commission, they should be required to prove there is a need and examine whether it could be solved by an alternative such as: rebuilding outdated lines (Mt. Storm- Doubs rebuild will increase transfer capacity by 66%), the placement of capacitor banks or the construction of a local power plant.
The PATH project was estimated to cost over 2.1 billion dollars. The expenses incurred by PATH to date of 130 million dollars will result in ratepayers paying millions of dollars in principal and interest every year for the next 40-50 years, as FERC has guaranteed PATH recovery of its stranded investment upon the project’s abandonment. If PATH had been constructed, ratepayers would have had to pay even more in their electric bills for an unneeded line! This project was not about the need for electricity, but the profits of American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy, now known as First Energy since the February 2011 corporate merger.
Citizen Activism is not futile, but imperative!
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Frederick News Post - PJM Staff to push elimination of PATH project
August 10, 2012
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Press Release 08-09-2012
PJM Finally Admits PATH is not Needed
PJM (Transmission Regional Authority) Staff presented to their Technical Engineering Advisory Committee (TEAC) today their recommendation to cancel the PATH project. This recommendation will be presented to PJM’s Board of managers on August 24th. After five years of claiming the project was essential for the reliability of the electric grid and lights would go out if PATH was not constructed; PJM has finally acknowledged their forecasts were inaccurate and thus, accepted the fact that less costly solutions will resolve any reliability concerns.
This project was not about the need for electricity, but the profits of American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy, now known as First Energy since the February 2011 corporate merger. This project was driven by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rate guarantee of 14.3% granted in early 2008. In February 2011, after being forced in the Virginia PATH case to admit lack of need, PJM acknowledged they could not justify the line, but they refused to terminate PATH. They chose instead to place the project in abeyance, hoping to justify it sometime in the future. As stated in a letter Sugarloaf Conservancy sent to the Board of Managers on July 2, 2012 The time has come for PJM and the utility companies to accept the reality that PATH is not needed in the foreseeable future and the likelihood that it will ever be needed is so remote that the project status should change from abeyance to abandoned or cancelled. Energy and funding should instead be funneled to rebuilding outdated lines to reinforce the grid. The Board of Managers of PJM at their August 24th meeting needs to accept the recommendation of their staff once and for all terminate the PATH project.
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On Wednesday, August 8, 2012, the Frederick County Planning Commission voted to send an addition to the Frederick County Ordinance to the County Commissioners for approval, stipulating that electric substations with lines of 500 kv or larger can only be sited on land zoned INDUSTRIAL (still by special exception). CAKES and Sugarloaf Conservancy both testified in favor of the ordinance which should insure that the proposed property for the PATH substation will not be used for that purpose – ever!
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do." - Edward Everett Hale (1822 - 1909)