ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 1, 1996 TAG: 9612030029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Need for power line simply common sense
In response to a letter from Tom Brobson ("Bravo to Giles County's anti-power-line stand," Oct. 20 Current), it is important to point out several errors of fact, as well as erroneous assumptions, regarding our need for the proposed 765kV transmission line.
Brobson claims that "no 'need' has been formally validated by Virginia," which is not correct. The State Corporation Commission formally issued an order on the project in December 1995 that found "a compelling need for additional electric capacity ."
More importantly, common sense tells us there is a need, since demand for electricity is up 112 percent since 1970 and is still rising. Common sense and the SCC agree, as we do at the Coalition for Energy and Economic Revitalization. The group has 525 member organizations and strongly supports the project.
If one accepts these opinions and common sense that a need has already been validated, the rest of Brobson's letter is irrelevant. But while we are at it, let's address the other issues Brobson raises:
He states that in 1990 "AEP [American Electric Power Co.] claims that massive blackouts will happen by 1997 if the line is not built" and that in 1996 "AEP quietly states that there will be no blackouts in 1997 or 1998." This is nonsense. AEP cannot and has not attempted to predict when an outage will occur. Blackouts are dependent upon many factors, some of which include weather and customer energy demands. Nevertheless, AEP can assess the number of times during the year in which the system is exposed to the possibility of wide-scale blackouts. This exposure time increases each year when native load customers increase the demand for electric power.
Our situation in Virginia can be viewed as similar to that in the Western states, where blackouts occurred three times this year, affected 10 states, three countries and over 7 million people.
Brobson is also wrong when he says the Forest Service draft environmental impact statement "says that there is no acceptable place in any of the counties to put such a power line." The document says that a private land route is still available. This position was recently confirmed by Forest Supervisor Bill Damon.
To sum up, virtually every statement made by Brobson is either inaccurate, irrelevant or mistaken.
This project is critically needed.
Bill Tanger
CEER Coordinator
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB