Rural residents in W.Va. still critical of power line that would stretch from Pennsylvania to Virginia

Allegheny Energy wants to build a 500-kilovolt power line from its plants in Pennsylvania to the growing cities and towns in northern Virginia. Along the way, the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, or TrAIL, must cross West Virginia, and rural residents there "still aren't sold on the project, despite new support for it from the state Public Service Commission's staff and consumer advocate," reports Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. (Above is a Allegheny Energy map of the original route.) A settlement on Tuesday rerouted the line around some communities south of Morgantown, but the project continues to draw "intense opposition from hundreds of West Virginians, who fear it will mar scenic views, lower their property values and continue what they say is an environmentally damaging reliance on coal-fired power."

Power company officials say the line, which would run through six West Virginia counties, is necessary to bring electricity to Eastern cites. Until Tuesday, the PSC remained unconvinced, "saying the company had not shown need for the project, established significant benefits to West Virginians, or selected the less environmentally damaging route," Ward writes. "PSC staff attorneys and experts argued that Allegheny had not fully examined other options, such as building new plants near Eastern population centers or working to cut electricity demand."

The PSC, however, agreed to the TrAIL after Tuesday's settlement redirected the line away from Monongalia and Preston counties, where opposition was well organized. The PSC's consumer advocate had proposed the alternate route. As part of the settlement, Allegheny agreed to move a transmission operations center to West Virginia and save state customers more than $40 million in rate reductions and other incentives. The settlement, however, did not end all opposition to the line. "On Wednesday, the West Virginia chapter of Sierra Club, which intervened to oppose TrAIL, issued a statement that compared the settlement to the sale of Manhattan Island from the Canarsee Indians to the Dutch in 1626," Ward writes. (Read more)

Ward and the Gazette have been following the story for a while, as part of the series "Lines of Power."