Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power announced last week that the proposed route of the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline, or PATH, would be reconfigured and would probably no longer include Berkeley or Morgan Counties in West Virginia.  President of the Jefferson County Commission Francis Morgan says that although they do not know where the new route will be, but that it may still go through areas of Jefferson County.  PATH was originally going to connect a substation near St. Albans, W.Va. with the Bedington substation near Martinsburg, W.Va., and from there run to a proposed substation near Kemptown, Md.  The reconfiguration does not include the substation in Bedington; however PJM, the group in charge of maintaining the transmission grid in 13 states and the District of Columbia, is continuing the search for a new midpoint.  Other areas of West Virginia are being considered, including Grant, Hardy and Hampshire Counties. PJM confirmed in a press release that the new reconfiguration will meet reliability needs of the transmission grid, which they predicted would fail by 2012 due to an overload.  Although Morgan and Berkeley Counties are no longer being considered as part of the route for PATH that has not stopped grassroots groups in the Eastern Panhandle form continuing to question the necessity of having the project run through any part of the State.Spokesperson for Citizens Against PATH Donna Printz says her group will continue meeting and pushing Allegheny Energy to answer questions about the project.  The construction of the lines are estimated to cost more than $1 billion, a price West Virginia’s citizens may end up paying.The group will meet on October 21, 2008 at the Tuscarora Ruritan Club in Martinsburg.  Printz encourages everybody to attend the meeting, which will begin at 6:30pm.

Categories: Local News
Tags: Allegheny, Berkeley County, Conservation, Eastern Panhandle, Energy, Jefferson County, Morgan, Morgan County, PATH, Printz