ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
WHILE THE PUBLIC has a chance this week to comment on the proposed AEP power line, some residents say they would like to hear what the candidates for Congress have to say about the project.
Some Virginia politicians running for national office are willing to tackle the issue of American Electric Power Co.'s proposed high-voltage power line, but others - notably the two U.S. Senate candidates - shy away from it.
The candidates' positions range from that of Rep. Rick Boucher, the Democratic incumbent in the 9th District, who says scrap the line and instead build new power plants in Southwest Virginia, to that of Jay Rutledge, a Libertarian seeking the 6th District seat, who says the government should get out of the way and let AEP fend for itself in a free market.
AEP's proposed 765,000-volt power line from Wyoming County, W.Va., to Cloverdale has surfaced as an issue during recent gatherings held by The Roanoke Times at which randomly selected voters in Western Virginia have been asked to talk about their concerns as they look toward the fall elections. AEP says the $245million line, which would transport electricity from the company's coal-fired power plants in the Midwest, is needed to ensure a reliable supply of electricity in Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia.
At one such discussion in Roanoke, David Willard, an AEP lineman from Vinton, wanted to know why politicians wouldn't take a stand on the power line.
"It's a touchy subject, very touchy," responded Lin Neill, a retired teacher from Roanoke.
"That's right," Willard said. "Where's [the politicians'] integrity when it gets down to the nitty gritty?"
Willard said he didn't agree with Boucher, but at least Boucher took a stand on the issue. The costs of steam power plants such as Boucher has proposed as an alternative to the line are astronomical, he said.
If the power line is needed, there must be some place that it can be located, said Ray Ebbett, a Roanoke County musician. AEP needs to pay more attention to using energy efficiently, Neill added.
The Roanoke Times questioned candidates for federal office in Southwest Virginia about the concerns raised by these and other residents.
Boucher's position on the power line has been long known. He has previously stated his opposition to the line on both environmental and economic grounds.
The U.S. Forest Service addressed his environmental concerns in its draft environmental study of the line, released in June, that would ban the power line from the national forest, Boucher said. His economic opposition is based on the costs of the line to the region's economy.
"The 60 percent of power we import from other states creates an economic flow of capital from Southwest Virginia to other regions of the country, where our dollars create coal-mining jobs and jobs in power plants and local-government taxes," Boucher said. "Those dollars should remain in Southwest Virginia."
When AEP, then operating as Appalachian Power Co., announced its plans for the line about six years ago, Boucher made his argument for local generation of power.
Pat Muldoon of Giles County, Boucher's Republican opponent, and Tom Roberts of Blacksburg, the Reform Party candidate for Boucher's seat, both believe that the issue now is where the line will be built, not whether it will be built.
Muldoon has opposed bringing the line through his county for both economic and environmental reasons. He has not formed an opinion as to whether the line is needed, and called the Forest Service's preliminary study banning the line from the forest "a little far-reaching.''
Roberts said a route across the national forest would be better than one through more populated private land.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke, the Republican incumbent in the 6th District, supports the power line as the best way to fill the region's power needs. "I want to make sure the federal government fully cooperates with the needs of Southwest Virginia," he said.
Goodlatte also said going through the national forest would probably be best, and if the route AEP has picked through the forest is not the one that would cause the least harm, then it should be studied further.
"I'm pretty well convinced we're going to have to have some kind of power line to bring additional power to the area in the very near future," Goodlatte said.
Jeff Grey of Rockbridge County, Goodlatte's Democratic opponent, has not reached a conclusion on whether the line is needed, but he agrees with the Forest Service's rejection of the line in the national forest.
"[The Forest Service] has fulfilled its obligation to assess whether it's necessary or beneficial for the power line to go through national forest lands," Grey said.
Jay Rutledge, the Libertarian candidate in the 6th District, said opening up the electric utility industry to competition is the best way to provide for the region's power needs.
"Without the incentive of the marketplace and without the freedom of the free market, electrical companies have no spur to develop and implement more efficient methods of electrical transmission," Rutledge said.
As for environmental opposition to the line, he said, "If this current crop of environmentalists had been in place when the automobile had been invented, we wouldn't have any roads today."
Sen. John Warner, a Republican who is seeking his fourth term, deferred to the State Corporation Commission as "the proper entity with expertise to determine if and where this power line should be constructed."
Warner's Democratic opponent, Mark Warner, was equally noncommittal. He wants to wait until the current public comment period on the Forest Service's environmental study of the line ends Oct.7 before taking a position. But the Forest Service's decision to ban the line from the forest does point to the environmental issues Warner is concerned about, Mark Warner's spokesman Eric Hoffman said.
The next public meetings on the power line are tonight at Lord Botetourt High School in Daleville, Tuesday at Blacksburg High School and Wednesday at Giles County High School in Pearisburg. All meetings run from 4-8 p.m.
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) David Willard, Lynn Loftus, Ray Ebbett.by CNBGRAPHIC: Charts. 1. Citizen's Agenda. color. 2. Where they stand. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESS