MARYLAND COUNTY REJECTS PATH SUBSTATION - Bad Week For Mega-Power Project

(11/22/2010)
Its been a bad week for the TrAIL and PATH power projects.

The TrAIL line was supposed to extend 37 miles into PA. Citizens in PA convinced the PA Utilities Commission that this section of the line was not needed.

A Maryland county zoning board is saying no to a large electrical substation, part of the proposed PATH multi-state power transmission line.

The Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals voted 2-1 against the project, which wants to erect 15 steel towers up to 175 feet high on 42 acres zoned for agriculture.

Allegheny Energy says the substation is needed for the 275-mile transmission line project which stretches from the John Amos power plant across several West Virginia counties.

The Maryland Public Service Commission has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the location of the substation, and the Bush administration gave eminent domain rights in the building of the system.

The PATH project has received wide opposition in West Virginia, related to the state bearing the coal-fire pollution to power the east-coast grid and the shifting of costs to WV taxpayers.

Read more at calhounpowerline.com