STL in the news!
June 12th, 2010
Stop The Lines! has appealed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ determination on the Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line, I’ve been representing them in this fracas, and from the news reports below, it looks like we’ve hit all the bases!
The Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line is absurd — they’re tearing down an existing low capacity line and putting up towers twice as high with … well… imagine this, QUAD bundled 500 kV line. Really… that is what they applied for, but midway through the hearing, they admitted that the structures couldn’t handle that and reduced it to TRI-bundled 500kV. ACSR at that, could it be more primitive? It’s absurd, if they 190 foot towers fell, with a 75 foot Right of Way, that’s 115 feet that it could extend beyond the Right of Way. It’s beyond absurd — it’s insane, and earth to mars, there are people right there, RIGHT THERE, don’t they care?
Plus it’s not needed, the Marketing Analytics report says it all:
Here’s the BPU order that we’ve challenged:
This is from the Pocono Record — be sure to click on the linkedarticle below to get to the Pocono Record comment section:
Power line fight heads to NJ court
For the Pocono Record
June 11, 2010New Jersey activists fighting proposed increases in the voltage and tower height of the Roseland-to-Susquehanna power lines are taking their battle to appeals court.
Four environmental groups and one onf the two private organizations made up of concerned homeowners filed court papers this week against the state’s Board of Public Utilities and utility company PSE&G. The papers charge that BPU, which approved the plan unanimously without comment in February, did not exercise due diligence in properly reviewing the proposal.
Stop the Lines, based in Fredon, N.J., has filed suit. It is one of two active private organizaitions in New Jersey opposing the project, along with the recently established Save the Park group in Hardwick Township, N.J., which has a sign advertising its cause on Hollow Road in Smithfield Township.
The suit contends the review lacked a proper analysis of the need for the project, failed to consider the environmental impacts of construction or weigh the secondary impacts of importing coal energy from Pennsylvania.
The existing 47-mile link of the 145-mile route, which extends through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and specifically through Saw Creek Estates in Lehman Township, would add 500,000 kilovolts and raise towers to 195 feet. It is under the auspices of the PJM Interconnection, which includes PPL on the Pennsylvania side and PSE&G, which is looking to recoup $3 billion in costs stemming from the deregulation of the energy sector in New Jersey.
The project still awaits approval by the National Park Service. New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez recently sent a letter to park Superintendent John Donahue asking him and the National Park Service to exercise due diligence in its decision, which is due in 2012.
PSE&G spokesman Karen Johnson defended BPU’s decision, saying PSE&G is aware of the appeal and believes there is “ample evidence” to support its decision.
And from the Daily Record:
Morris area citizens group sues over power line plan
BY COLLEEN O’DEA • STAFF WRITER • June 10, 2010The citizens group Stop The Lines has filed an appeal challenging the state Board of Public Utilities’ approval of Public Service Electric and Gas Co.’s transmission line expansion through Morris, Sussex and Warren counties.
Stop The Lines’ appeal of the BPU’s January decision permitting the upgrade on PSE&G’s Susquehanna-Roseland power line is the second filed in appellate court in the last week. Four environmental groups that like Stop The Lines also had intervened in the proceedings filed an appeal last Friday.
The Stop the Lines appeal will focus on the lack of need for the expanded transmission line, which would add 500-kilovolt lines to towers as high as 195 feet along the 47 miles in New Jersey. The group also faults the BPU’s refusal to consider information on a possible decreased demand, health and safety impacts on landowners, residents and the environment and economic impacts ranging from loss of property value and tax revenue to inability of homeowners to obtain mortgages.
“Building 195-foot high towers within a 150-foot wide right-of-way is simply unreasonable,” said David Slaperud, a Stop The Lines trustee.
“We believe the ample evidence in the case fully supports the BPU decision that this line is needed for reliability,” said PSE&G spokeswoman Karen Johnson.
PSE&G is awaiting final environmental permits to begin working on the eastern half of the $750 million project, from Hopatcong to Roseland. It hopes to begin work this summer. The western portion, from Hopatcong to the Delaware River, has to await the completion of a National Park Service review because the line runs through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. That is expected to take until 2012.
The project was challenged in the BPU by citizen and environmental groups, several municipalities and the Montville School District. Ratepayers would foot the bill.
The line crosses from Pennsylvania at the Delaware Water Gap and proceeds through Warren and Sussex Counties. More than half the line would traverse Morris County, through Jefferson, Rockaway Township, Kinnelon, Boonton Township, Montville, Parsippany and East Hanover before ending in Roseland.
And in the New Jersey Herald:
Activists appeal state’s power line approval
Stop the Lines, the activist group that has been the most vocal and omnipresent adversary to the PSE&G line since its proposal in 2008, is appealing the Board of Public Utilities approval issued in February.
The appeal focuses on the need of the 500kV line, running 146 miles from the Poconos across northwestern New Jersey and into the heart of the Garden State. They will also question the economic impacts to property owners and municipalities along the line — which will double the height and triple the power of the existing 1920s-era transmission towers.
“Building 195-foot-high towers within a 150-foot wide right-of-way is simply unreasonable,” said David Slaperud, a Stop the Lines Trustee.
Four state environmental groups also appealed the BPU decision by the June 7
deadline.PSE&G has maintained brownouts could roll down the line as early as 2012 if the upgrade is not complete. However, the National Park Service blessing to cross the Delaware Water Gap will not be available until that year — and PSE&G put off seeking final environmental permits for the 20-mile Sussex County stretch of the line last month.
I’m sooooo jealous!
June 12th, 2010
My little bro is going to Lind, Washington today:
Stop the Lines appeals BPU decision
June 8th, 2010
Stop the Lines has appealed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities decision approving the Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line through northern New Jersey.
The New Jersey environmental coalition that intervened in this docket, represented by Eastern Environmental Law Center, has appealed too!
This is yet another case of utility wants but NO NEED, and now, they’re trying to build only the eastern section! Say what?!??!! That’s not what the BPU approved!
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Stop The Lines appeals BPU decision on PSE&G Susquehanna-Roseland power line project
Stop The Lines, a grassroots opposition group, has filed an appeal in the Appellate Division of NJ Superior Court challenging the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) decision to allow Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) to build a massive power line along an existing right-of-way that was not designed to accommodate a line of this magnitude.
“Building 195-foot high towers within a 150-foot wide right-of-way is simply unreasonable,” said David Slaperud, a Stop The Lines trustee. Slaperud said that the proposed line would negatively impact property values, and that a project of this size running through residential areas is detrimental to public health and safety. “The BPU has not adequately addressed these concerns.”
“BPU was asked several times during evidentiary hearings to look at the most recent energy demand data, and they failed to request the additional information,” continued Slaperud. “Instead, they relied solely the word of Mr. Steven Herling, Vice President of Planning, PJM Interconnection, LLC (PJM), who stated, ‘We will do the analysis, but we already know what the results will be,’ when questioned during hearings. No facts, just basically a plea to ‘Trust us.’”
Tom Hill, another trustee of Stop The Lines added, “How could the BPU take Mr. Herling at his word, rather than simply looking at the data that is currently available? Something just doesn’t seem right – while energy demand continues to drop, BPU is willing to take PJM at their word rather than requiring data to back that assumption up.”
Stop The Lines attorney Carol A. Overland strongly agrees. “This BPU decision comes at a time when any utility infrastructure is suspect. PJM’s demand has been steadily decreasing since 2006, and recently PSE&G proposed to build only a part of it. That alone shows we’re not going to be freezing in the dark, the lights won’t go out. Add PJM’s State of the Market Report and the increasingly delayed RTEP, it’s just not plausible that they need this line. What’s clear is they WANT it, but their business plan and PJM’s marketing plan are not sufficient reasons to put landowners and communities through this transmission hell.” Overland stated that the proposed new project is far beyond what a demand increase would require. “It’s transmission on steroids at a time when we are in conservation training. The Susquehanna-Roseland Project is going backwards down the wrong path.”
The Stop the Lines appeal will focus on the lack of need for this massively expanded transmission line, and the BPU’s refusal to consider new PJM information showing an decreased demand now or in the foreseeable future; the uncertainty of rate-recovery, which is currently at issue at FERC; health and safety impacts on landowners, residents and the environment; and economic impacts ranging from loss of property value and tax revenue to inability of homeowners to obtain mortgages.
Stop The Lines also fully supports the issues raised by the four Environmental Groups – Environment New Jersey, New Jersey Highlands Coalition, New Jersey Environmental Federation and the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club – in their appeal of the BPU decision, and will work in collaboration with them throughout the appeal process.
Big write up on John Blair
June 4th, 2010
John Blair is a cohort in the no-coal world, and he’s been featured in a BIG write up recently — from the looks of this article, perception of him is expanding beyond the “Royal Pain In The Ass” mode to merit a feature in the… get this… the BUSINESS magazine in Evansville, Indiana. But make no mistake about it, John Blair IS a Royal Pain In The Ass, in the best possible sense of the word, he revels in it and does it very well. He’s been a fixture in environmental issues long enough that they’re learning it helps to pay attention. He operates his Valley Watch a lot like Alan and Green Delaware, the one person responsible for focusing direction and keeping it all together, and it’s not easy and for sure the work is NEVER done.
The article ends with a classic Blairism:
Blair says, “If I have something to add to the conversation, I’ll add it” — in a loud voice.
Here it is in its entirety, in case the link disappears:
A Watchful Eye
The controversial life of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and environmental activist John Blair
Aloft over Henderson County in a small Cessna, John Blair points out the windows in each direction and out to the horizon, identifying the power plants visible from 3,000 feet. He locates nearly a dozen plants, including the Rockport Power Plant with one of the tallest stacks in the world (1,038 feet) and Gibson Station, operated by Duke Energy, 2008’s third largest power plant in the United States for generating capacity, according to Electric Light & Power magazine.
Blair is on assignment to produce aerial photographs of a large construction project of an Evansville-based firm and has hired a pilot from Don Davis Aviation out of Henderson, Ky., to fly him up the Ohio River. The bird’s eye views he creates pay the bills and stoke his passion: the health of the citizens of the Ohio Valley. For around three decades, Blair and the organization he co-founded, Valley Watch, have been the most vocal and active area advocates for clean air and water.
“I, personally, and Valley Watch have had tremendous victories,” Blair says, claiming a record of 33 wins and four losses against projects and endeavors that his organization claims would cause serious harm to the public health of the Ohio Valley.
Read the rest of this entry »
Time to change channels…
June 3rd, 2010
It’s all been happening over at NoCapX 2020 — there’s exciting news to publish here on other things, but no time until after tomorrow at 4:30!!