News and Information

PLA Fundraising [December 2007]

	Yes, it's true. This photo taken at the Power-Line Awareness Festival fundraiser held in October demonstrates that fluorescent bulbs will indeed light up spontaneously underneath power towers. How can this be healthy?

Thanks to you, we have also reached our initial goal of raising $150,000. But, as we stated when the PLA was organized last June, we know we’ll need more resources before the SCC decision is issued sometime in 2008—probably another $150,000. We hope in the very near future to announce a significant matching fund program where your donations will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by a grant from one or more concerned individuals.

In addition, the two fox hunts most directly impacted by the Southern Route, the Old Dominion Hounds and the Casanova Hunt, will be holding a joint fund raising meet on Saturday, January 12, literally under the existing power-line at Windrush Farm in Rappahannock. The meet will raise funds for the PLA by a $50 capping fee/donation and by having a silent auction of amazing items. A traditional hunt breakfast will be served at the kind invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Barry Levine at their Swayback Farm home adjacent to both Windrush and the proposed power-line.

And, yes, we invite you to donate again. Since we are already in December, we should remind you that your contribution to the PLA is tax deductible and you may wish to consider which year—2007 or 2008—provides the biggest tax advantage for you.

State of the Fight [December 2007]

The PLA Boards feels that the momentum may be switching to our side thanks to the efforts of our allies and us. Support from the State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) Extension, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Report, and other developments, all auger well for our side in this critical fight. On top of this, there is now a startling development on the Pennsylvania end of the power line. The staff of the Public Utility Commission there and the State’s Consumer Advocate have both recommended that the PUC not approve the power line on the ground that it is not needed.

PLA-Specific Progress [December 2007]

Our attorney, Charles Hundley, submitted the written testimony and backup reports of eight PLA witnesses to the SCC on December 4th. These include testimony of PLA’s expert appraiser, Mr. Jim Ruffner, who addresses the adverse financial impact of the power line. Also, we submitted testimony and reports from seven experts on various adverse impacts of the line. The PLA expert witnesses variously address the following crucial areas of adverse impact: scenic, historic, environment, open space easements, agricultural & forestal districts, and residential. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have volunteered their valuable time and expert opinions: John Beardsley, Perry Cabot, Pat Curry, Bob Dennis, Paul Farmer, Marshall Jones, Dick Koch, and Ben Weddle.

Power-line Awareness Festival a Success [October 2007]

	Festival host Cory Koral in the utility room of his off-the-grid house. He offered tours of his house to Festival attendees.

With balloons flying high (to show the impact of the new line), bands playing and great weather, the Power-line Awareness Festival drew more than 200 people to Cory Koral's Jordan River Farm near Flint Hill in Rappahannock County October 20. Rappahannock representatives Delegate Todd Gilbert and Senator Mark Obenshain presented the PLA with checks totaling $1,250.00, representing the campaign donations they had received from Dominion and/or Allegheny Power Companies. In addition, the Festival organizers donated another $1,000 to the PLA based on their “profit” after expenses.
The day was culminated by an impressive fluorescent bulb walk on the power-line. At dusk, festival-goers gathered under Dominion's power lines that already cross Jordan River Farm. Participants brought their own 3-foot-long fluorescent light bulbs, which will glowed from the stray energy emitted by the lines.

The PLA wishes to thank the organizers of the event—Hunt Harris, Alexia Morrison, Howard Weingarten, Joyce Harman, Steph Ridder, and event host Cory Koral.

The Power-line Landowners Alliance Holds First Meeting in Rappahannock County [July 2007]

	Current power line in Rappahannock County. Photo by Carl Zitzmann.

PLA organizers were thrilled at the Tuesday evening, July 3 turnout of more than 80 in Flint Hill, and especially by the words of support from so many citizens. The work of the PLA is an effort on their behalf. We are defending their interests as landowners and lovers of Rappahannock County and neighboring lands. PLA received a similarly enthusiastic response in Culpeper County the week before and in western Fauquier as well. Our newest PLA Director, Les Armstrong, represents southern Fauquier, where we will be conducting outreach next.

It is important that PLA membership numbers swell, so that State Corporation Commission officials recognize the PLA as an organization representing a position that is widely supported by Virginia citizens all along the proposed route of the power line and throughout the counties affected.

Please use this website to learn more about our work and what to do to join the PLA. It only takes a small donation to join. For those who can do more, many large donations will be required if we are to complete our work by presenting expert testimony when Virginia officials meet to hear our legal case at the SCC. Multiple attorneys in this field have advised that we have a winning case. That plus your support encourages us immensely.

Please help us stop Dominion while there is still time to build our case against this misconceived power line.

(by Paul Farmer, July 4, 2007)

New Alliance To Defeat Power Line Formed [June 2007]

The Power-line Landowners Alliance (PLA) has been created with the defeat of Dominion's proposed power line as its goal. A grass-roots coalition of landowners and nonprofits in four counties has stood up a new organization determined to prevent Dominion Resources, Inc., from building a monstrous, new, industrial, 500-kV electric transmission line through western and southern Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, and Prince William Counties. The Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection (RLEP), Concerned Culpeper Citizens (CCC), and directly affected landowners in those four local counties have collectively organized to defeat Dominion at the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC). That is where the case will be argued by staffs of lawyers from multiple litigants.

The Power-line Landowners Alliance, or PLA, comes to the fight with a case that no other party is likely to present: that this decision to build a massive new power line along the proposed route through these counties is an extraordinarily bad idea that will have a devastatingly serious, permanent, adverse impact on citizens who live or own land along the line.

The sole intent of the PLA is to represent the interests of landowners who will bear the burdens of lost use, lost value, and lost enjoyment of lands affected by Dominion’s ill-conceived misadventure in land desecration. The PLA intends to intervene on landowners’ behalf, exerting a level of influence at the SCC that no single landowner could expect to exert on his own. Financial and volunteer support for the PLA’s work is welcomed from all who oppose the spoiling of the beautifully scenic lands that we enjoy.

In addition to environmental, cultural, and historic concerns, the PLA estimates that the direct financial and life-style impacts to landowners (both those who live in the path of the line and those who have land nearby) will be enormous. The PLA believes that no affected landowner should stand by without legal representation in this matter. Few, however, have the financial wherewithal to independently enter the fray on their own behalf.

Counsel for the PLA strongly believes that it has a winning case to make before the SCC. The PLA also supports the case that Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and others will make that this new transmission line is not needed. But other than the PLA, no organization plans to make the case that the proposed route through the affected counties is an extraordinarily bad route for another massive, industrial power line. If the SCC finds that a new transmission line IS needed, only the PLA stands in the way of the SCC designating that the route will come this way.

For weeks, the PLA, RLEP, CCC and an initial group of landowners have been working behind the scenes to put a strategy in place to battle Dominion where it really counts – with attorneys at the SCC. The PLA asserts that it is now time for all those in Rappahannock County and elsewhere who will be most affected to come forward, hear more about their plans, and take action.

If you own land along the current Dominion transmission line through Rappahannock County, if you have land near enough to the power line to see its towers when raised to double their current heights, or if you simply feel strongly enough about this issue to want to consider helping their work against Dominion, the PLA invites you to attend their public meeting in the Flint Hill Fire Hall at 7 PM on Tuesday, July 3. Expect to be informed about the PLA, Dominion’s proposal, the SCC process, and how to protect your rights as a landowner. There will be a question-and-answer period. You will also be given the opportunity to discuss this issue off-line, either at the event or privately later.

The PLA intends to win this battle. If you are among the impacted, our success can only be realized with your support. Please come out and help us help you.

(by Paul Farmer, June 29, 2007)