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Strong Chapter Energy Committee Graced with Dedicated, Knowledgeable Members
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by Sally Wilts | 2007

The NEW Chapter Energy Committee gets active on WV energy issues

When the call went out several moons ago for volunteers to serve on the Energy committee, I hesitated, knowing that I don’t have the breadth of knowledge that Jim Kotcon, Duane Nichols, Allan Tweddle or Mary Rehmann possess. I can help with media, so that is the subcommittee I am on, and thus, writing this article.

Barbara Fallon is our moderator and organizer and we have developed six sub-committees. Media includes Nate Parr and myself. National Agenda is shared by Jim K and Allan T. Cool Cities is chaired by Jim K and includes Allan, Rodger Dotson, Mary Rehmann, Patricia Reilly, and Joshua Rutkowski. Net Metering includes Bill DePaulo (attorney who worked$ to get net metering passed by the PSC), Jonathan Rosenbaum and Robert Handley. Membership is Barb Fallon. Global Warming is chaired by Allan and includes Duane Nichols and Bill DePaulo.

I won’t go into depth on all of the issues that the committee has discussed, since several will be covered elsewhere in the newsletter. Our newest initiative is to try and contact many of the groups which are in opposition to the Allegheny Power High Voltage Transmission Line forsharing of technical and legal information. Duane and Rodger are assemblinginformation on the opposition groups and will try and convene a meeting in June, to include public officials.

We will draft a letter of concern to the Public Service Commission, which is considering Allegheny Power’s  request for construction of the line.

Public hearings will be held and we’ll need to organize effective comments. This power line is felt to be necessary to accommodate increased demand for electricity on the eastern seaboard. WVEC and our energy committee feel strongly that if the utilities would direct this money towards energy conservation, as California has done, we could avert the increased electricity demand.

The line is intended to carry power from large power plants, but our energy future will depend less on large power plants and more on dispersed energy sources from renewables. To find out more, go the project’s website at www.aptrailinfo.com.  Copies of the PSC application will be available at public libraries. The PSC website is at www.psc.state.wv.us and you can search for case # 07-0508.