Va. challenges new authority for feds to OK power lines

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Virginia leaders asked the U.S. Department of Energy on Monday to remove the state from its plans to make it easier for power companies to build transmission lines.

The agency’s National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor ruling allows the federal government to overrule decisions by state or local governments to deny permits for power lines in an effort to ensure an effective power supply.

The corridor covers Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, where demand for electricity continues to steadily increase and stress the existing power grid.

Gov. Tim Kaine and Attorney General Robert McDonnell said the Energy Department’s decision overstepped federal authority and asked the federal agency to hold another hearing to potentially reverse its October decision.

“There is no reason for the federal government to override a process that is well-handled and better handled at the state level,” Kaine said.

The federal agency’s decision was akin to “usurpation of the state’s proper role in the siting and approving of electric transmission corridors,” McDonnell said.

The organization that runs the mid-Atlantic power grid approved Pepco’s plan to build a 230-mile transmission line from Dumfries through Northern Virginia to another station in Clinton and up to New Jersey last month.

Dominion Virginia Power is trying to win approval of a 500-kilowatt transmission line in outer Northern Virginia that has angered residents and politicians across the region.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said last month the corridor would allow for power companies to build much-needed transmission lines “to keep reliable supplies of energy flowing to all Americans.”

While the federal government needs to address the issue of interstate transmission corridors, Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Jim Norvelle said, the company is taking its application for its planned transmission line through the state process.

“We’ve got a process that works in Virginia,” Norvelle said.

Twenty groups including the Piedmont Environmental Council and Virginia Conservation Network joined the state in challenging the designation by formally requesting a new hearing on the policy.

“It’s almost as if the department ignored all the criticism about creating these corridors,” said Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com