| OPPONENTS CLAIM FEW BENEFITS FOR CONSUMERS
By Bill Howley
Early in the current legislative session, Governor Manchin introduced
one bill in the WV Senate, SB505, and another one in the WV House of
Delegates, HB3000, that would have taxed the extra high voltage power
lines including the proposed TrAIL and PATH lines.
The real purpose of
the tax was not to generate new tax revenue, but to provide some
incentive for the WV Public Service Commission to approve the lines.
By
themselves, the PATH and TrAIL lines provide no benefits, only costs,
for West Virginians.
The power companies needed this tax to convince
the Public Service Commission that PATH and TrAIL would provide some
benefit, any benefit, to West Virginia.
Neither of the Governor's tax bills passed into law during the regular
session.
The Senate bill never left the Senate Finance Committee.
The
House bill failed to meet the April 1 deadline for being voted out of
the House.
Del. Jonathan Miller (R-Berkeley) proposed an amendment to
the House bill that provided for direct payments to land owners affected
by the lines and for increased taxes on the power lines.
The Governor
and the power companies could not accept either of these conditions, and
effectively stopped all action on the bill.
American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy, the two power companies
that want to build PATH, have indicated that they will file their
application for a certificate of need with the Public Service Commission
in April.
Both the Governor and the power companies had hoped to
present the PSC with the brand new power line tax at the end of the
legislative session.
Now, the power companies may have to delay their
application further, because the Governor may try to reintroduce his
power line tax bill in a special legislative session.
Anti-PATH groups across West Virginia have pledged to fight the power
line tax again in a special session. It makes no sense for the
Legislature to be taking action on this tax now.
The TrAIL line will
not go into service before 2012, and the PATH line wouldn't be activated
until 2014.
No tax money would begin to flow before 2012.
We are facing a period of dramatic change in electrical generation and
transmission right now.
The Legislature's best option at this point is
to refer the power line tax for study over the summer.
Interim
committees could hold public hearings where experts could discuss a
range of options for solving regional power problems.
This kind of
study would provide the basis for thoughtful policy making about the
need for any new transmission lines in the state.
See The Power Line
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