The Piedmont Environmental Council case against the high-voltage transmission line across the Northern Virginia piedmont is still alive and kicking.
First, the PEC scored a victory in the Fourth Circuit Appeals. This comes straight from a PEC email update:
“The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond yesterday released its decision in a case brought by the Piedmont Environmental Council, multiple States and parties, regarding rules set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in implementing the Energy Policy Act of 2005. “The decision directly upholds a State’s right to reject a transmission line project without fear of the federal government stepping in to overrule that State’s determination. In plain language, the utilities do not get a second chance if the State rejects a line based upon the merits,” said Christopher G. Miller, PEC President.”
Second, the latest numbers for electricity demand fall short of the projections that Dominion used to justify construction of the power line, the PEC contends. Reports the Fauquier Times-Democrat:
“Economic data from the Federal Reserve of Richmond to PJM’s own data and forecasts highlight that the evidence and rationale for” the line “no longer exists” … Miller said in a statement. “Why should Virginia taxpayers be forced to pay for something that is not needed?”
The online version of the Times-Democrat story does not say what that data is, nor does it include a response from Dominion.
Miller said the SCC should reconsider its October 2008 approval of the transmission line, based as it was on now-outdated data.
A host of new technologies are in the development pipeline that could transform the electric power industry, moving it decisively away from the Big Grid model of remote power plants connected to population centers by huge transmission lines to a Distributed Grid model based upon a “smart” grid and smaller, more numerous power sources in and near the population centers. The current recession, which is more severe than anyone predicted a year ago, undoubtedly will crimp NoVa electricity demand. That could buy time to put into place new energy conservation programs, renewable energy resources and the regulatory structure to tie it all together without the need to build the expensive and intrusive power line.
