The Fight Against Dominion

By: Walker
Published On: 3/6/2007 4:32:27 PM

Kindler has done an extraordinary job here of covering the Dominion regulation saga and how it affects the environment and consumers. In addition, I wanted to highlight another important Dominion related issue that affects all Virginians whether you are a Dominion customer or not. 

I am working with Virginians for Sensible Energy Policies (VSEP), a coalition of local groups, electric customers, families, farmers, workers and citizens of all ages. VSEP is organized to study energy policy, educate the public, and litigate to protect the environment and property rights.  We are particularly concerned with Dominion's proposal to construct a 500-kv transmission line with 15-story tall towers through the heart of Virginia. 
While Dominion has changed the proposed route several times in hopes of quelling opposition, the one constant is that they have not proven the lines are necessary.  In a recent meeting with a local newspaper, a Dominion representative, when asked where the studies are, simply shrugged his shoulders and stated that it's a "complex engineering issue" involving several regions and nobody had it and that, even if they did have it they would not make it available until the final plan was filed with the State Corporation Commission.  As VSEP president Matt Sheedy questions, "How can a major corporation threaten to permanently scar land and take personal property and not have to account to anyone in the impacted areas?"

All the while, Dominion is trying to scare Virginia residents with an onslaught of radio and print advertisements claiming that rolling blackouts are imminent. In the final weeks of January, Dominion spent nearly a half million dollars on misleading full-page advertisements in The Washington Post alone.  Meanwhile in Richmond, Dominion is using their lobbying muscle and money in to impose their will upon us.  As this Virginia Pilot article notes, Dominion has spent nearly $3.8 million dollars on campaign contributions and gifts during the past ten years and, "no other corporation comes close to the power company in money spent on campaign donations and lobbying Virginia lawmakers."

The projected overloads have little or nothing to do with demand in Virginia and instead are a result of Dominion plan to bring more pollution to Virginia by transporting energy from dirty coal-fired plants in Ohio that fail EPA air standards to the Piedmont to meet a need that it has failed to prove. 

As America wakes up to the reality of global warming, many corporations such as BP America, Exxon Mobil, and Duke Energy are taking steps to decrease their negative impact on the environment. However, Dominion, one of the nation's largest producers of energy, is not on the list. It emits roughly 33 million metric tons of carbon annually. This makes Dominion the 20th largest polluter in the S&P 500. If Dominion were a country it would rank 34th in the world in terms of pollution!  We are seeing more proactive approaches to responsible corporate citizenship and energy policy, such as the recent TXU deal , and steps taken by state governments in California and Pennsylvania .

Yet in Virginia we remain in the bottom ten states in regards to efficient use of energy and thanks to the efforts of Dominion remain on a course that is destroying our environment.  But, I guess that doesn't matter as long as Dominion's stock remains near an all time high.  We aren't against companies making a profit, however this behavior is simply irresponsible.  Virginia can meet all of its energy needs through a comprehensive state energy plan that promotes the use of modern technology and energy efficiency. 

For those who haven't seen it, Joel Garreau had a great article in the Washington Post yesterday that gives us further insight into Dominion's callous approach to this plan. 

John D. Smatlak, 50, has come a long way from his steel-mill home town of Johnstown, Pa., from which he escaped to the electrical engineering program at Penn State. Today, in his Richmond office with the shades drawn against the view of the James River, he is turned out in a well-cut black suit and highly polished black tasseled loafers.

The proposed Meadow Brook-Loudoun power line, as it is known, is John Smatlak's baby. He is Dominion's vice president-electric transmission, the man trying to maintain his composure as he faces all the protesters with their signs that read `Fight Dominion's Greed.'

Smatlak's approach to the power line project has been a spreadsheet view of the universe. 'When we decide where to route it, we plot all of the historic sites, the historic areas. How many miles through the area. How many historic sites per mile. The number of houses every so many feet. We count the number of houses within 200 feet, within 500 feet,' he says.

Smatlak says he is not familiar with most of the previous Piedmont dramas, such as the `Third Battle of Manassas' over the proposed mall on the battlefield. He has heard of the Disney debacle but doesn't see any connection to the uprising over his power line.

Yet striking similarities exist. Each corporation starts with the conviction that it has achieved the kind of strategic dominance that will lead to quick victory. Resistance is futile, they believe, and for excellent reason. Every legal base that matters is covered. All economics have been analyzed. The politicians have been attended to. The utility, for example, is one of the state's most generous political contributors, donating more than $3.75 million to Virginia's politicians since 1996, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Dominion employed 18 registered lobbyists this year, and their track record is formidable even by the standards of the tobacco industry. For example, the raft of bills introduced in the current legislature to slow or stop Smatlak's baby have all been efficiently short-circuited.

This fight is not even close to being over as long as Dominion continues with this illogical and unnecessary proposal.  I urge everyone to contact Dominion and tell them NO POWER TOWERS.

Thanks and I will keep everyone updated on this issue. 


Comments



Another group with the same goals (Bill Carlin - 3/6/2007 9:14:25 PM)
The PEC, Piedmont Environmental Council, is campaigning against Dominion's plan to erect 500kV transmission lines through Frederick, Warren, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Fauquier, Prince William and Loudoun counties. 

Their website for this campaign is WhoseDomionion.org

I'll send a link to this diary entry to the guy that sends the email updates. 



Thanks (Walker - 3/7/2007 12:52:02 PM)
for your support Bill.  We actually link to PEC on our website among many other organizations that share our opposition to Dominion's power tower plan. 



Poetic Justice (Eric - 3/6/2007 9:27:43 PM)
I'm with you on this issue, but I recall reading about a fat cat developer (who is of course partially responsible for the sprawling mess that's causing many of our problems) whose property would have to host some of these power lines.  It figures that he wants to force Dominion to run the lines through a protected area of some sort to keep 'em off his property.

Anyway, he's to blame for the increased need (assuming there actually is one) so it's a fitting reward that the power lines ruin his property. 



I believe you are referring to (Walker - 3/7/2007 12:47:31 PM)
John Hazel, Jr.  The Washington Post article I linked to mentions the irony of his situation.  Referring to John D. Smatlak, Dominion's man in charge of the power tower plan, the article notes,

In fact, he says, Dominion conducted no prior demographic or political research to assess the scope, sophistication or financial backing of any opposition it might face in the Piedmont. Dominion is not the kind of place where it would occur to them to think like that, Smatlak says. There was no place for it in their spreadsheet.

He says he had no idea the humming, buzzing wires were slated to march down the driveway and across the pond of John T. 'Til' Hazel Jr., the attorney and developer who not only proposed to build that mall on the Manassas battlefield but who, in the second half of the 20th century, did more to shape the future of Northern Virginia with its office towers than any man since Robert E. Lee. He didn't know the first proposed alignment would put the enormous towers across the front yard of John B. 'Jay' Adams, a former member of Dominion's board of directors.

As I noted before this highlights Dominion's careless or maybe just arrogant approach that even one of their own, a former board member, didn't have his property spared initially.  Whether through Hazel's, Adam's, or anybody's property, we need to stop Dominion from turning this proposal into a reality. Glad to hear you agree with us on this.  Thanks. 



Remember when Dominion was Vepco and... (Bill Carlin - 3/6/2007 9:30:37 PM)
...the bumper stickers said, "Welcome to Virginia: Owned and Operated by VEPCO"?

Maybe an update to that sticker should be issued because Dominion is very busy buying influence.



If Dominion won't listen and the General Assembly is no help, what next? (floodguy - 3/6/2007 11:40:07 PM)
The one thing we can all be certain of is, the endless details and complexities both in favor of and against Dominion Virginia Power's extra high-voltage transmission proposal.

If our region is to resolve this matter in a fashion which respects all point of views, the solution will have to require the fair participation of all parties involved - government, the electric utility industry, corporate and public consumers.  However, as it stands now current energy policy does not consider this and property owners and the public where transmission lines and power plants are proposed, are the only ones expected to "carry the load". 

Businesses and the public in the areas where Dominion's proposal will serve should be educated on how to conserve electricity.  Utility providers in these areas should be required to implement programs which reduce peak demand, and upgrade old transmission and distribution infrastructure with newer more efficient equipment.  Government should encourage the distribution of small, low emission, on-site generators to power larger retail, corporate, and industrial facilities. 

If government, the utility industry, and consumers insist electricity is made available where it is demanded, the existing grid should be made efficient before private property is seized to serve regions in far away places.  If these non-transmission measures are implemented, then at least the public and property owners within these transmission corridors will know their property value and land was taken from them for a "good" cause. 

Interested readers should write the U.S. House of Representative, Committee on Energy and Commerce, citing House Resolution 809, 810, and 829, and request Congress amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to include energy efficiency and conservation measures in areas where extra high-voltage transmission corridors will serve.

http://www.timescomm...

Or, appeal to the Governor - see my post here http://www.raisingka...



Thanks for keeping this issue alive on the blog (thegools - 3/8/2007 12:08:52 PM)
I am dead set against the power-line incursion into any part of No. Virginia, especially as it seems so unnecessary.

If you want to help, buy a couple of super low watt bulbs and put them in your most used lights.  If everyone in Dominion's dominion did that, the "need" for the new power lines would completely evaporate.  Plus the bulbs last "forever."

(Every bulb in my house (except two) are low watt. You can buy a box of 20 cheap at Home Depot in Manassas.)