
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040197
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: George Kegley
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHAMBER BOARD ENDORSES LINE

The board of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce has unanimously endorsed Appalachian Power Co.'s planned high-voltage power line as "an essential element to economic growth in both Western and Eastern Virginia."

A recommendation from the chamber's economic development committee commented on Apco's "sensitivity to the environmental impact of the project and the steps being taken to minimize that impact." Most of the considerable opposition from residents of the proposed power-line corridor has been on environmental grounds.

The endorsement of construction of the line and its extension into the Virginia Power service area came at a weekend board meeting in Winchester.

Little or no opposition to the 765,000-volt line - from Oceana, W.Va., to Cloverdale - has come from the business community or chambers of commerce, the board said. The project "provides for the long-term cooperative generation and transmission" of electricity by the state's two major power companies.

Two opponents of the line criticized the position of the business organization. Harriet Hodges, chairperson of Arcs, a multi-county group of power-line opponents, said chamber support of the line was expected. Businesses "have always walked hand in hand together. . . . They're held in a hammerlock, there's little else they can do."

Hodges, who lives in Craig County, said companies "can't operate without the `old boy' network, they can't look to the future beyond a six-month forecast."

Robert T. Skunda, chairman of the chamber, said its endorsement of the line "is very much in keeping with our increased emphasis on economic development in Virginia."

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB