Wash Post OpEd: Standing in the way of improving a county’s power
By Robert M. Blue July 28 at 4:00 PM
Robert M. Blue is president and chief executive of Dominion Energy Power Delivery Group.
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R) recently dismissed the need for a new electric transmission line in western Prince William County. Ironically, a county news release touted Prince William’s rapid and continuing economic growth, based in part on continued access to even more reliable power.
However, Stewart, who announced this month that he is running for U.S. Senate, said he would accept building the line if it were partially buried, which would cost $167 million. Not for reliability reasons but to keep his constituents from seeing it. That could mean instead that a young family in Fairfax County or a widow in Portsmouth would see higher electric bills to make Stewart happy. Stewart said, “Not our problem.” The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has emphatically said “no.”
We hope this political showmanship does not harm the county’s growth prospects or, worse, jeopardize the reliable electric service of the people he was elected to serve.
At issue is the need for Dominion Energy to build an electric transmission line to serve increased energy demands in the Haymarket area, including for a data center. Stewart bragged in 2015 about rapid growth in the Route 15 corridor and that it “is going to trigger the need for more power.” So which is it, Stewart? Which direction are the political winds blowing today?
Electric transmission lines are a fact of life. Without them, there are no lights, air conditioning, smartphones, apps or jobs. How do we help maintain the quality of life that electricity affords while reasonably minimizing the impacts of necessary infrastructure improvements? Customers help pay for the collective benefits of preserving a healthy and robust energy grid, which is why we must be prudent and responsible. In this case, the SCC has determined underground transmission lines fall short.
In 2014, Dominion focused on a route that primarily parallels a railroad, limiting the number of homes that would be near the transmission line. But a homeowner’s association collaborated with Stewart to block that path by deeding a parcel of land to the county, even after we advised the county on at least two occasions that alternate overhead routes probably would have more negative impacts. As a result, we proposed to the SCC an overhead route that parallels Interstate 66 in an existing infrastructure corridor, which the SCC encourages.
Routing a new electric transmission facility is often a very difficult process for the company, for the communities along its route, for local government and for the regulators who must make the final decision on the project. To say finding a buildable path is a challenge, even when local government is committed to helping, is an understatement, but it is a responsibility we don’t take lightly.
The circulation of misinformation creates even more needless confusion. Let us be clear on three points. First, we have already shown and the SCC has already determined the clear need for and broad public benefit of this project: 450 customers would be served directly from the new substation, and it would maintain reliability for more than 6,000 customers in the area. The need has not gone away. Second, we are not looking to take anyone’s homes or force people off their land. That is not our desire, nor is it needed. Third, the Carver Road route was developed as a direct result of the county chairman’s side negotiations, not because of poor planning, race, ethnicity, income or anything of the sort.
Stewart’s decision to block the railroad route caused the SCC to select the Carver Road route, which runs through a neighborhood with a strong legacy and on land held dear for generations. It wasn’t our preference; it wasn’t the SCC’s first choice. We offered it to the SCC as an option only after the railroad route was blocked and because we have an obligation to provide alternatives. Yet we find ourselves again with Stewart seeking to thwart the SCC’s impartial authority in siting transmission lines. That leads one to question how the county expects power to reach an area it was instrumental in developing.
Stewart’s actions have created anxiety unnecessarily and haven’t moved us closer to a resolution. We are committed to finding a collaborative solution regarding the Haymarket transmission line — one that continues reliable service for all of our customers and enables future prosperity through economic development.
We ask Stewart to set aside his personal political goals and come to the table with a willingness to reach a real solution. County residents and all of those throughout the commonwealth who value reliable energy and reasonable electric rates are counting on us.
[Editor’s note: Public records show the data center would be owned by VAData, an Amazon.com subsidiary. Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.]
Read more about this issue:
Peter Galuszka: A proposed pipeline tests property rights in Virginia
The Post’s View: Loosening up on Dominion
Mike Tidwell and LaDelle McWhorter: Dominion now is politically toxic in Virginia
Dear Mr. Blue,
Methinks you are seeing red!
It is Dominion Power and Amazon that are using citizens for their personal gain.
Maybe you don’t know the facts of your own transmission line project?
Did you know in the SCC evidentiary hearing the truth was disclosed? 97% of this “supplemental” project is for Amazon Web Services. Do you understand that supplemental means that this project is not needed for general grid reliability?
So if citizens appear to be enraged, and determined to protect their community from Amazon’s extension cord, please, don’t take it personally.
If YOU were required to sacrifice your little bit of the American dream, your home, your property, the beauty of your community, you would rise up too I imagine.
Take the easy way out Mr. Blue, I66 hybrid. It’s the fair resolution to this debacle. Do you really want to risk a precedent of the line extension policy? Or worse, a constitutional challenge of using eminent domain for private economic gain?
Citizens never asked for this fight. Please find your humanity and advocate for a fair resolution, I66 and buried and Amazon pays, IF there even is a Need.
It appears that Dominion has decided to use Mr. Stewart as their scapegoat in this long-running battle. The truth is that the entire western PWC community has been fighting this project for more than two years. Mr. Stewart is simply doing his job in representing the interests and the expressed wishes of the overwhelming majority of western PWC residents. The Coalition to Protect PWC is the true “enemy” of this unnecessary power line. Why is Mr Blue not attacking the coalition? The coalition is responsible for mobilizing residents to speak at innumerable hearings and raising money to pay for attorneys to represent the people of the county throughout this long process. Visit their website to see the other side of this story.
Of course, it does not make sense to attack the PEOPLE of PWC. That approach would make Dominion look like the big, bad, corporate steamroller they are. Much wiser to find one individual to attack….and even better if that individual is a political foe as well.
Yes, we all need power, and yes, new power lines are needed as communities grow; however, what Mr. Blue fails to mention is that this huge power line, with all its problems, will serve only ONE client in PWC and that client is AMAZON and their planned data center. A data center that will employ about 12 people. No other member of the PWC community will benefit from this project, yet Dominion and Amazon want the ratepayers to carry the cost burden. In a recent meeting, attorneys for Amazon admitted that Amazon may NEVER build out the data center complex. They are currently embroiled in serious site issues with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers due to destruction of protected wetlands areas, as well as lying on the permit application. So, I would ask Mr. Blue why he has been so disingenuous in his editorial. Why has he not revealed all the truths associated with this project?
One final truth: Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon is also the owner of WaPo.
CountryGirlinCity
Regardless of what you think about Corey Stuart’s politics, he is an elected local official representing his constituents and defending his locality. Bob Blue, oligarch, is part of the top power structure of a corporation that makes a couple billion dollars a year in profits and pays its CEO $15 million a year. You would think that, being the top political donor and top lobbying force in the commonwealth, they could come up with a fresher PR argument than “we keep the lights on”. Dominion Energy is not a public utility. They are the biggest corporate bully on the block and the only interests they serve are those of their executives and their shareholders. They have a horrible environmental record (most recent exhibit A: found guilty of violating the Clean Water Act and contaminating drinking water supplies with coal ash. Oh, they are complying with judge’s orders . . . while they appeal the decision) and their primary bloodthirst is for taking people’s farms, land, and homes against their will to blast, drill, and clearcut a 42 inch fracked gas pipeline through the most beautiful, fragile, biodiverse, pristine ecosystems in Virginia (heck, on the east coast) including national forests and the AppalachianTrail. Virginians are “counting on us” says Bob Blue?? Disgusting and sickening. “We are not looking to take anyone’s homes or force people off their land”?? These people have no conscience.
CA Native
Out here on the west coast, we merely get to deal with utilities that have no intention of building any more interconnection between their grids. So we get southern California generated base load power sent to Arizona, instead of to other parts of California.
burocat
Mr. Blue makes a good point: we are all paying for those power lines and facilities but it ignores that the fact that in this case just one large customer (Amazon) gets the benefit. The cost for this facility, and other of those dedicated to NOVA data centers, should not be part of Dominion’s general cost pool for rate setting. The costs and applicable profits factors associated with these projects should be applied solely to beneficiaries. It is a misrepresentation that these type projects benefits for the general population. By generalizing the costs and applicable profit, these projects increase the electricity cost for everyone, subsidizing the most profitable industry in the country.