Pepco projects delayed

MAPP is one of two major transmission lines proposed for Maryland.  The other is PATH (Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline) proposed to extend through southern Washington and Frederick counties.  The following announcement from PJM puts PATH on indefinite hold due to declining growth in electricity demand …

http://www.pjm.com/~/media/about-pjm/newsroom/2011-releases/20110228-RTEP-announcement.ashx

There are indications that PJM may announce in a few weeks that the in-service date for MAPP will be put off for another year, yet again.  Yet again?  Yes, the in-service date for MAPP has been postponed by a year every year since it was first proposed.

Calvert County Commissioners Speak Out in Calvert Recorder

Commissioners Intervene in Case to Reduce Local Impact

Commentary by Calvert Co. Commissioners

Calvert County has often been a friendly host to utility projects that help support the region's energy sector. We are home to the state's only nuclear power plant and to one of the nation's largest liquefied natural gas import facilities. These sites are major county taxpayers and fit well with the county's development goals outlined in our Comprehensive Plan.

The key, however, is that projects meet the high standards we set for our community. When they do not, as in the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) pole project in Huntingtown, we work hard to see that corrections are made. Recently Pepco has been working with the county on the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway, or MAPP. We believe that portions of this project can have a negative impact locally, and we have petitioned to become a part of the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) proceedings on the project to ensure that our concerns are addressed.

The MAPP project consists of a transmission line that would increase the ability to transport power across three mid-Atlantic states and would purportedly bring more reliable power to the region. Plans call for a massive, 65-feet-tall industrial facility called a converter station to be located in Calvert County. The station would convert electricity between AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) for long-range transmission. The Port Republic site Pepco has identified for the station would occupy 34 acres in close proximity to Route 4 near the headwaters of Parkers Creek, one of the largest and most environmentally sensitive creeks in the county.

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) contends that construction of the facility on Pepco's preferred site would create a blight on the landscape and would be in violation of the Calvert County Comprehensive Plan and the Calvert County Zoning Ordinance. If built at this location, the facility would also have a significant impact on Parkers Creek.

We are intervening in the PSC case because we believe that none of the current parties in the case adequately represent our interest in protecting the Parkers Creek watershed or in seeking compliance with the county's comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance. We have concerns about the environmental and aesthetic impacts related to the location and construction of the converter station. Much of the land surrounding Parkers Creek has been preserved from development as part of an effort to maintain the creek and the surrounding area in their natural condition. We aim to keep it that way.

We have remained firm with Pepco about our priorities and we hope the company will work with us to identify a proper site for the converter station. We will also continue to push Pepco for full, open communication as the process moves forward. The BOCC will give its testimony on the case before the PSC at public hearings on the project scheduled for September. Follow Calvert Currents for regular updates.

The MAPP project is being considered by the PSC under Case Number 9179. Information is available on the Maryland Public Service Commission Web site. To learn more, please contact Linda Vassallo, director of Calvert County Department of Economic Development, at 410-535-4583 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              410-535-4583      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Letters to Army Corps of Engineers and MD DOE supporting Charles and Prince George's Counties

Calvert Citizens for Safe Energy are deeply concerned with the prospect of Pepco, in the name of MAPP, erecting huge power lines and placing the largest power conversion plant in the US and Europe in ecologically and socially sensitive portions of rural Calvert County. 

 Charles and Prince George's counties face serious impacts to their wetlands.  We support their efforts to encourage Pepco to reroute MAPP in order to avoid devastating their fragile wetlands.  An underground solution sounds possible and perhaps even economical.  Please insist the Pepco really look at alternatives.  We have attended public meetings where Robert Jubic, Pepco project manager, has led us to believe that there are no possible alternative routes and that there is a mandate to break ground almost immediately and be finished by 2015.  Please, let's slow down and do this right if necessary, and not at all if unnecessary. 

Calvert County is next up for negative impacts,including a proposed 34 acre power  conversion plant and a 64 foot high building in our farm and forest zone and in the headwaters of Parker's Creek, thought to be perhaps the only pristine watershed running into the Chesapeake Bay today.

We concur with  comments made by Richard Klein of CEDS, which we have reviewed.
Please take Mr. Klein's comments seriously.  He has done the research and presents intelligent arguments and suggestions.

Whatever is done now is forever.

Marcia Tripp

Charles County Commissioners Weight In on PEPCO

http://openstream.charlescounty.org/videoplayer.jsp?file=/meetings/2011/feb/BOCC_021611.mp4&title=Board of Commissioners Meeting for 2/16/2011

The MAPP presentation begins at 34:30 through to 63:00.

Commissioner Kenneth Robinson was great

He passed a motion that the Charles County government should consult with other counties (Calvert and Prince George’s) to get their take on MAPP.

He also pressed Pepco to hold a second public hearing, which Pepco said they’d consider.

Charles County Planning director Chuck Beall pointed out that County approval would be required where MAPP crosses county right-of-ways.  Pepco said that while the Critical Areas Commission has approved MAPP in Charles County they still need county approval for the Forest Harvest Plan covering the Possum Point to Burches segment.  This could be an extremely important opportunity for the County to resolve impacts.

Pepco said the lights could go out in Southern and Central Maryland as well as the Eastern Shore if MAPP isn’t built.  Of course our experts and those hired by State agencies have shown this is nonsense.

Pepco said Charles County will get $1 million per year in tax revenue. Pepco also claimed that MAPP was critical to taking advantage of Maryland offshore wind potential.  I was just in a conference call with the folks leading support for the Offshore Wind bill and the consensus was that this claim is poorly supported.  Besides alternatives like the head of Bay option would achieve the same benefit without all the environmental impact.

Pepco MAPP project should seek alternative site

Pepco MAPP project should seek alternative site

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011

As reported in the Jan. 28 edition of The Calvert Recorder, the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners took a major step last month by petitioning Maryland's Public Service Commission to intervene in its proceedings on Pepco's Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway Project (MAPP) in order to help protect the interests of the county and its residents as this massive, multi-billion dollar power project is considered in the months ahead.
This was very welcome news, especially the statements by Commissioners' President Susan Shaw (R) that expressed concern over Pepco's proposal to cover acres of farm and forest land at the headwaters of Parkers Creek.
As The Calvert Recorder also reported, we are only now learning that Pepco's proposed facilities on that site would be the largest of their kind in North America.
Pepco's efforts to upgrade the power grid and the interests of the county and its residents in ensuring that these facilities are properly sited certainly need not be irreconcilable. So, it is also encouraging that the county commissioners have asked that talks continue between the county's director of economic development, Linda Vassallo, and Pepco representatives on finding alternative, more acceptable building sites other than the Parkers Creek site.
Let's hope the county now takes the next step and makes it crystal clear to Pepco that building its proposed industrial facilities at the Parkers Creek headwaters site is simply a non-starter.
Yes, other sites can and should continue to be considered, but Pepco needs to get a clear message that the Parkers Creek site is off the list entirely.
Long before Pepco set its sights on this area of farm and forest land to construct its enormous power conversion and switching stations, the Parkers Creek watershed was already one of the county's crowning achievements in sensible zoning, land planning and land conservation.
Over the course of more than 25 years, county officials, state agencies, land conservation groups such as American Chestnut Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy, and hundreds of volunteer citizens have all made great strides in protecting Parkers Creek and its surrounding watershed lands, making it one of the small wonders on the entire western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
This work continues today and will need to continue for many more years to come.
We can have better, more reliable electric power and still preserve the natural legacy and rural landscape of the Parkers Creek watershed for all future generations.
All it takes is for people of goodwill to commit to working together, starting with the understanding that large industrial power facilities will not be placed where they really don't belong.
Paul Dennett, Port Republic
The writer is a former member of the ACLT board of directors and is a member of Calvert Citizens for Safe Energy.

Does Pepco have what it takes to get it right?

To the editor:  Does Pepco have what it takes to get it right?

“Better safe than sorry” came to mind when I saw the PEPCO President’s very public apology for the delays restoring customers’ service after the recent storm.   Too bad the money for a full-page ad in the Washington Post hadn’t been invested in basic system maintenance to prevent such emergencies.

Thank you, Calvert County Commissioners, for formally intervening in Pepco’s proposed Mid Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) project.  The decision to be an intervener allows the County to examine and question Pepco’s proposed locations of its MAPP facilities, including the proposal to use land in rural Port Republic in the Parkers Creek headwaters for the location for the biggest AC/DC converter facility ever built in the US.

Of all places to take such a large and irreversible gamble!  In the past 20 years, the Parkers Creek watershed has received much effective County, state and private attention to minimize the impacts of human development on the natural environment. Pepco’s proposal to build on land zoned farm and forest in the Parkers Creek watershed is neither logical nor respectful of the County’s exemplary land use planning.  The County has designated sites for industrial and commercial activities and invested our public funds to provide industrial infrastructure for exactly this type of project.  Let’ s put that planning and investment to good use.

If Pepco had an excellent track record conducting its basic operations I would be more willing to gamble that it can safely build and operate this unproven technology.  MAPP may be diverting Pepco’s funds and its management’s attention from its existing operations; which by the Pepco President’s own admission, clearly need more investment and care, and will for years to come.

Being a good corporate citizen means not having to say you are sorry.  Keep this project out of the Parkers Creek watershed.

Very truly yours,

Joy A. Bartholomew
Port Republic

The writer is a former board member of the American Chestnut Land Trust and member of Calvert Citizens for Safe Energy.

Department of Energy Corridors Gone for Now

	View this Message Online
	Department of Energy Transmission Corridors Gone (!!) Dear Richard, Going back a few years, do you remember the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, aka, the NIETCs? These corridors made it possible for utilities to use federal eminent domain (or threaten to use it) for the siting of transmission lines. Well, we just found out that we won our 9th Circuit case against the Department of Energy designations --and as of today, they're gone! The 9th Circuit Court eliminates the corridor designations, ruling that DOE failed to conduct an environmental review as required by the National Environmental Policy Act and failed to consult with affected states. Here's a quote from the opinion: "We determine that DOE failed to properly consult with the affected States in conducting the Congestion Study and failed to undertake any environmental study for its NIETC Designation as required by the National Environmental Protection Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. ? 4332(C). We also determine that these failings were not harmless errors. Accordingly, we vacate the Congestion Study and NIETC designation and remand the cases to the DOE for further proceedings." While this doesn't change things for those who are being impacted by the 500-kV TrAIL line, going forward, it takes away a major power company advantage, and could have a big impact on future transmission line proposals, including the 765-kV PATH line proposal currently under review. We're just digesting the court decision now, but wanted to send it around right away: View the 9th Circuit Decision Very best, Bri West Piedmont Environmental Council bwest@pecva.org 540-347-2334 Received this from a friend? Sign up to receive alerts and news from PEC.