Washington Post, July 29, 2008

by Sandhya Somashekhar

A state official yesterday endorsed Dominion Virginia Power's plan to string a set of high voltage cables along a 65-mile stretch of rural and suburban Northern Virginia, delivering a blow to landowners and environmental groups that had spent millions of dollars trying to halt the controversial project.

Alexander F. Skirpan Jr., a hearing examiner with the State Corporation Commission, said in a written opinion that Dominion made a solid case for the line. The company has said the $243 million project is necessary to meet the demand for electricity in power-hungry Northern Virginia and to avoid the threat of blackouts beginning in 2011. Opponents have accused Dominion of exaggerating the need.

Skirpan also signed off on Dominion's proposed route for the 500-kilovolt line, which would begin in Frederick County, Va., and end at a substation in Loudoun County, winding in a U-shape through Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Warren and Prince William counties. The line would follow existing electric cable routes, but opponents note that the company, which has the power of condemnation, would have to acquire private land to widen its right of way. The cables would be carried atop steel towers ranging in height from 75 to 165 feet.

Skirpan's opinion will carry enormous weight as the project faces its final regulatory hurdle in the full three-judge commission, which will have final say over the project. Dominion and its adversaries filed hundreds of pages of arguments and studies, which the commission will consider when making its decision. The parties also testified over several days in Richmond, with Skirpan presiding over the hearings.

Skirpan noted one reservation in his report. Government officials in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, two states through which the line would run before entering Virginia, have yet to sign off on their portions of the larger 300-mile project of which Dominion's is a part.

"Therefore, I recommend that the Commission condition approval of the Virginia segments of the . . . line on approval in Pennsylvania and West Virginia," he wrote in his 223-page recommendation.

Dominion officials said they were not surprised by Skirpan's recommendation.

"The recommendation by the hearing examiner affirms what we've been saying from the beginning, that there is a real need for this line, and the route we have proposed has the least impact on the community," said Le-Ha Anderson, a spokeswoman for Dominion.

Opponents of the line, which include local governments, landowners and environmental activists in the affected area, expressed disappointment yesterday. The Piedmont Environmental Council, which has been leading the charge against the line, has argued that the company's true purpose is to deliver electricity to lucrative markets in New York and New Jersey. The organization has spent more than $3 million on lawyers and industry specialists to rebut Dominion's case.

"If the SCC Commissioners follow the Hearing Examiner's recommendation, Dominion will be able to condemn private land and public values and pass the costs to ratepayers for a project that is more about increasing utility profits than meeting reliability standards," group leaders said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), a longtime opponent of the line, criticized Dominion and the commission's judges for leaving so much responsibility in the hands of the hearing examiner.

"Dominion has too much power, and the SCC process is flawed," he said. "Frankly, I think the General Assembly ought to go in there and deal with the SCC and its failed process."

The Northern Virginia line is one of three large transmission lines planned for the Washington area. One proposed transmission line would start in West Virginia and end close to the Montgomery County border in Maryland. Another would begin in Prince William, extend through Southern Maryland, then cross the Chesapeake Bay to the Eastern Shore.