A bipartisan group of House lawmakers last Thursday called on an appropriations subcommittee chairman to insert language in the fiscal year 2008 spending bill that would bar the Department of Energy (DOE) from using federal funds to designate two National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC) in the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest regions of the country.

The Democratic and Republican House lawmakers made the request in a letter to Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, which has jurisdiction over funding for the DOE. Their goal is to block the construction of major transmission lines that are planned for the corridors.

The lawmakers seeking restrictions on DOE funding include Democratic Reps. Maurice Hinchey of New York, John Hall of New York, Chris Carney of Pennsylvania, Michael A. Arcuri of New York and Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and Republican Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia, Tom Davis of Virginia, John McHugh of New York and Todd Russell Platts of Pennsylvania.

The letter to Visclosky came one week after the DOE announced the designation of two NIETCs, where power line projects blocked at the state or local levels can be appealed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for siting authority (see NGI, April 30). The measure is aimed at addressing critical power supply problems in the heavily populated Mid-Atlantic region and in Southern California. But states, which traditionally have had sole jurisdiction over transmission siting, say their authority will be usurped in the process.

Siting of the two national corridors came after a nationwide power congestion study was completed by DOE last August and consideration of two rounds of comments from interested parties. The process now calls for a 60-day comment period and public meetings before DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman issues a final decision on the corridors.

DOE identified the two areas “where consumers are currently adversely affected by transmission capacity constraints or congestion” as the Mid-Atlantic area, including counties in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia, and all of New Jersey, Delaware and the District of Columbia, mainly the regions served by the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) and the New York Independent System Operator.

The Southwest area that was designated includes counties in California, Arizona and Nevada. PJM has supported the national corridor concept on its grid in order to get needed power lines built before there is a major breakdown. But California officials are opposed to federal intervention.

With the designation of the corridors, “the Department of Energy and…major energy companies are trying to ram massive power line projects down the throats of the people of New York, Virginia and other parts of the country. Those of us who represent these affected communities and states simply will not let them get away with this usurpation of power and apparent violation of the Constitution,” said Hinchey.

“We have already introduced several pieces of legislation and today we are making a direct appeal for support to the chairman of the subcommittee that can put an end to this misguided energy policy by denying funding to implement it.”

The New York Regional Interconnect is proposing to use a NIETC designation to construct a high-voltage, direct current electric transmission line that would extend about 200 miles from Oneida County to Orange County, NY. In Virginia, Dominion Virginia Power is proposing to use the corridor designation to build 550-kV power lines through several counties in the state.

Earlier this year, Hinchey introduced two pieces of legislation and Wolf unveiled a third bill to stop the corridor designations from moving forward. The first bill (HR 809) seeks to repeal the section of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that authorized DOE to designate the corridors and/or grant permits for projects in those corridors. The second measure (HR 810) would strip FERC of the ability to grant federal eminent domain authority for power line projects.

And the third bill (HR 829) would ensure that areas recognized for their scenic, natural, cultural or historic value are protected from electric corridors.

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