Who benefits most from the coal-fired electricity produced in West Virginia?
For more than a century, West Virginia coal miners have sacrificed their backs, lungs, and health to put food on their families table. For more than fifty years, West Virginia communities have seen not only massive job loss, but an escalating loss of our mountains to strip mining. For more than twenty years, West Virginia miners have had their most powerful voice, the United Mine Workers of America, broken by aggressive coal companies – with Don Blankenship & Massey Energy leading the union-busting charge. For more than ten years, West Virginians have seen the ultimate taking – the taking of our homes – to Mountaintop Removal and the Valley Fills it creates.
Right now, the same people who have been responsible for all of the above are pushing for a giant power line to ship electricity from the Charleston (WV) area to the Eastern Seaboard. The Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) starts in Putnam County, WV then cuts its way across the mountains and valleys of 17 West Virginia Communities on its way out of state.
If built, this line would be a 765-KiloVolt Transmission line. An Administrative Law Judge for the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission has said that the proposed 550-Kilovolt Trans Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL) would require four additional coal plants. PATH, at 765 KV, has double the transmission capacity of TrAIL and simple multiplication dictates that there would be eight additional coal plants needed for this line. This is at a time when West Virginia is already exporting about two-thirds of the electricity (98% of WV’s electricity is coal-fired), we don’t need this power line to further ship our power out of state. If you think we’ve already seen too much profit for Don Blankenship & his buddies, too much union busting, and too much mountaintop removal – you ain’t seen nothing yet.
If all that above isn’t enough for you – this monstrous power line harms local property values, increases harmful herbicides sprayed on the ground near the lines, and harms human health. All of this for a line that West Virginians would end up paying for through increased electricity rates. It’s clear who benefits most from coal-fired electricity produced in West Virginia and it’s not West Virginians.
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I’m not sure about your math on this, but I’m afraid that what you are saying might be true. It sounds possible. We live in Jefferson County and PATH will be going through the Southern past of the county, if approved. I have not seen any questions raised so far concerning additional coal plants needed. The company has been saying that PATH would handle the power generated from one coal plant near its starting point in WV. We have organized against PATH, but given the decision by the WV PSC on TrAIL, it seems likely that PATH is going to go forward, eventually. Paradoxically, lack of demand in Maryland and points North might be all that will delay this, and that requires the economy to continue to be depressed, or our neighbors to get serious about conservation and generating their own electricity closer to home.
Interested in supporting efforts to slow down/stop PATH crossing Jefferson Cty, WV. Agreeing with comments by Michael Lippe in response above about Jefferson Cty. Want a response back to our email site–specific info about WHERE in southern part of Jefferson Cty. PATH is to cross into Virginia or Maryland and also approx. WHEN. Who can we contact to change the outcome? What else can be done?
The Hahns