MARL back on Preston County agenda
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KINGWOOD - The Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link project was back on the County Commission agenda this week with commissioners working to put together and file a second resolution opposing the project.
County Administrator Nathan Raybeck told commissioners he received an update from Morgantown Attorney Brad Stephens who attended and participated in the MARL evidentiary hearing conducted in Charleston by the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC). Stephens is representing Mon, Preston, Hampshire and Mineral counties as an intervenor in the project.
"As I believe you and your constituents are aware, the various parties, including intervenors, such as the Preston County Commission and its three county counterparts, were afforded the opportunity to submit prefiled testimony (as was the applicant) in advance of the hearing and then be subject to cross-examination at the hearing concerning that testimony," Stevens wrote. “Based on my prior experience in similar cases before the PSC, for the MARL case, in the absence of fiscal resources necessary to hire a consultant/expert witness who could speak to the asserted need issues (this would be an electrical engineer with substantial power systems engineering experience), I did not believe that prefiled testimony on our part would be particularly impactful to the Commission’s consideration. As attorneys are retained and called upon to represent their clients and advocate for them, that is what I have done in the lead up to and during the evidentiary hearing."
He wrote that he believes that statements of opinion regarding the MARL project or its anticipated impacts are best made more broadly through submission of public comment and in a more structured fashion throughout the submission of post-hearing briefs.
"I encourage affected landowners and others in Preston County and elsewhere to continue to submit written comments to the PSC via the web docket, as has been done up to this point. The Preston County Commission itself may want to consider passing a resolution or preparing a written statement concerning its impressions following the hearing, and specifically, the extent to which, if any information revealed during the evidentiary hearing as aided the county in firming up its opposition and then submitting this or these documents as public comment via the PSC web portal."
He indicated the PSC intends to issue its order either approving or denying the MARL application by the end of the calendar year. However under the statute WV Code 24-d2-11a, the PSC has until March 2027 to do so.
The project is part of a broader initiative to enhance our region’s electric grid, this proposed transmission project consists of building a new approximately 107.5-mile 500-kV transmission line that connects a substation in Dunkard Township, Pennsylvania, near the West Virginia border to a connection point near Gore, Virginia. This transmission line is bi-directional, carrying power both east-to-west and west-to-east. The project includes a new 500/138-kV substation in Frederick County, Virginia, as well as an interconnection to existing substations on the Maryland and Pennsylvania sides of the West Virginia border.