The following is Delegate Bob Marshall’s response to the State Corporation Commission Division of Information Resources Director Director Kenneth Schrad concerning the scheduling of the hearing dates.
Dear Mr. Schrad:
Your response to my request that the SCC pick different hearing dates for the proposed Haymarket Amazon-Dominion Data Center that do not conflict with the General Assembly’s 2016 session is deeply troubling to me because you clearly state the hearing dates have been selected to accommodate the proposed Amazon/Dominion construction schedule! I am astounded!
You stated, “The company’s application was received on November 6, 2015, in which the application cited an in-service need date of June 2018 with an estimated construction time of 12 months. … The Commission elected to choose the soonest dates available.”
Your response completely undercuts any hope the public may have had that the SCC process would be fair and unbiased, and that the SCC would first determine whether there was a “need” to place a Data Center several miles outside of an Industrial zoned area rather than accommodate “an in-service need date of June 2018 with an estimated construction time of 12 months.”
In short, the Commission will have a difficult, if not impossible, task to convince western Prince William residents that the Commission has not already made a decision to comply with the Amazon/Dominion construction schedule. Why the rush to assume the “merits” of the application, if not to comply with a foregone conclusion that nothing will be presented by the public that could possibly impede Amazon’s construction schedule?
In my twenty-four years in the General Assembly, I have never received a letter like this from a public body. To schedule such important meetings at a time that elected officials are serving the public during the 2016 session, and to suggest that scheduling a meeting the Monday immediately after the day we may adjourn is frankly inconsiderate of the role those who have been elected to represent the people have in this process.
Because of the SCC’s own actions, your decision to adhere to a time table which complies with Dominion’s construction schedule will now be viewed as a lack of impartiality and fairness of the Commission.
I repeat my original request that you immediately cancel and reschedule the proposed public hearings so that they are not during the 2016 General Assembly session from start date through the Veto session in April.
Sincerely,
Delegate Bob Marshall