dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN – As the evidentiary hearing approaches for NextEra Energy Transmission MidAtlantic’s MidAtlantic Resiliency Link Project case, Public Aervice Commission staff have issued a second set of recommendations to keep the hearing from becoming too unwieldy with the huge number of participants.
As of Tuesday, the date of the PSC staff memorandum, the PSC had received 180 petitions to intervene in the hearing set to begin Oct. 26 in Charleston. Interested parties petition the PSC to intervene in cases so that they can submit testimony on the record and conduct cross-examination at the hearing. The PSC grants intervenor status to parties that have a demonstrated legal interest.
Staff said Tuesday that the PSC wants intervenors to work with counsel to be grouped, and that all intervenors should coordinate efforts with similarly situated intervenors to avoid duplicative pleadings and testimony.
Staff said that simply grouping intervenors by county would be unduly limiting because the result would be just a few large groups. But some type of grouping is necessary for judicial economy.
“Staff would strongly recommend that intervenors work to coordinate their efforts,” it said. It recommends the the PSC set a deadline for intervenors to make filings with respect to any groups they have formed.
Four county commissions have petitioned to intervene: Monongalia, Preston, Mineral and Hampshire. Preston and Hampshire have already been granted intervenor status. Staff recommends that Mon and Mineral commissions also be granted.
Staff notes 19 instances where petitioners co-own the same property that the proposed line will cross or pass closely, live at the same address or are married. It recommends that those petitioners coordinate their efforts.
Staff also recommended intervenor status for 40 others whose land the line will cross, or whose land is within three miles of sited corridor.
And several people missed the June 1 deadline to file as intervenors, but staff recommends they be granted status because they would have if they’d made the deadline. Staff noted a precedent for this in a prior PSC case.
Staff recommended that the PSC deny status to nine petitioners who don’t own or have a legal interest in the land in question, or whose land is too far outside the 10-mile study corridor.
The PSC procedural order for the evidentiary hearing shows it set to run from Oct. 26-30 and Nov. 2. The PSC decision due date is March 9, 2027.
MARL’s proposed 500 kilovolt line would span 107.5 miles starting in Greene County, Pa., and ending at a handoff point – a new 500 kV transmission line to be constructed by FirstEnergy – in Frederick County, Va.
About 58.9 miles of the line would cross West Virginia: 5.9 miles across Monongalia County, 15.8 across Preston, 10.9 across Mineral and 26.2 across Hampshire.
