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Karen Schultz Statement on Power Line Lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Julie Petrick
October 12, 2007 813-943-1336

Karen Schultz Statement on Power Line Lawsuit

WINCHESTER – Karen Schultz, candidate for state Senate, released a following statement Friday regarding a new lawsuit that challenges the legality of a portion of the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL).

On Thursday, 33 property owners sued Allegheny Energy Inc. and subsidiaries, to challenge the legality of the TrAIL line, according to the Associated Press. The property owners said they or former owners were misled when right-of-way agreements were signed years ago.

Schultz released the following statement Friday:

“I applaud the efforts of Pennsylvania residents to stand up to this power grab from big power companies. This lawsuit is yet another example of the fact that this proposed power line would harm our way of life from Pennsylvania down to Virginia.

“After the Department of Energy’s attempts to stack the deck in favor of big power, we must stand up and tell the power companies that this line is flat-out wrong.

“Instead of relying on harmful power line construction, Virginia should now take the initiative to become a leader in innovative technologies that reduce energy consumption and maintain the highest standards of environmental protection.

“In the State Senate, I will work to invest in clean energy that will create jobs, attract new businesses, and boost Virginia’s economy across the board.”

Schultz is running for Senate in the 27th district, which encompasses the city of Winchester, all of Frederick and Clarke counties, and portions of Fauquier and Loudoun counties.

The article on the lawsuit follows.

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Pa. residents sue over big power line— northern Va. in path
Friday, Oct 12, 2007
Associated Press

Washington, PA – Nearly three dozen property owners who live in the path of a proposed high-voltage power line said they or former owners were misled when right-of-way agreements were signed years ago.

The 33 property owners have sued Allegheny Energy Inc. and subsidiaries, claiming easements have expired and that owners did not understand the scope of the project.

The suit, filed Thursday in Washington County Court, challenges the legality of a 37-mile, 500-kilovolt power line Allegheny Energy wants to build from Mount Morris to Eighty Four.

The line is part of a larger project to build a transmission line that would pass through West Virginia and continue to northern Virginia. It is designed to ease congestion in the mid-Atlantic electrical grid and channel power to the eastern seaboard, where power plants are relatively few and electricity is more expensive.

“The property owners who gave these easements certainly did not contemplate the diminution of value and the hazard to health, welfare and agriculture that would be created by the (Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line) itself,” said Richard DiSalle, the property owners’ lawyer.

The property owners say they thought the transmission line would service a new steel mill and be constructed of wooden utility poles no taller than 25 feet.

Allegheny Energy disputed the claims.

“It’s our assertion that the easements we acquired in the late ’60s and early ’70s are valid,” spokesman David Neurohr said.

Allegheny Energy’s subsidiary, the defunct West Penn Power, planned to build the line in the 1970s, but eventually scrapped the project.

Neurohr cited the project’s 1975 application indicating plans for an “electric transmission system consisting of towers, wires, cables and fixtures.”