July 26, 2007

Clerk of the State Corporation Commission

Document Control Center

P.O. Box 2118
Richmond, VA 23218-2118

Re: Case PUE-2007-00031 and PUE-2007-00033

Dear Sir / Madam:

As Officers and Board of Directors of the Rattlesnake Mountain Association, we represent 200 property owners and residents in a community directly in the path of Dominion’s preferred alternative for their proposed interstate transmission line. We respectfully submit our concerns and comments to the public record in opposition to Dominion and TrAILCo’s assertion of the need for an interstate 500kV transmission line.

In this period of scientifically accepted global warming trends, Dominion’s and TrAILCo’s applications to add 500kV transmission lines that are intended to supply unbridled electric demand in northeast cities from coal fueled power plants is an outdated approach by Dominion and TrAILCo. Current forward-looking visionaries, such as Al Gore quoted from The Energy Electranet state: “The climate crisis will force a historic shift to a new global power network of small alternative sources. This network will then feed a smart electric grid. Welcome to the future. “ The Commonwealth of Virginia State Corporation Commission must deny these applications at this time, since the application is an extensive capital investment in an outdated system that will cause undue local impact to the Virginia Piedmont region, paid for by Dominion’s rate payers, without any benefit accrued to the Virginia service area under the application. Our specific concerns are provided below.

Energy Conservation

• The Commonwealth of Virginia State Corporation Commission should reject the application from Dominion Power until the time that Virginia has an energy conservation program that is at or above the national average for state-wide energy conservation programs. In the absence of a satisfactory Virginia energy conservation and management program, inadequate effort to promote or ensure electric power conservation in the Commonwealth has been expended. With Virginia’s poor energy conservation record, substantial energy conservation savings are immediately possible because little has been done to date in energy conservation in Dominion’s service area.
• Facts: The American Council for An Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) June 2007 report The State Energy Efficiency Scorecard for 2006 rates Virginia 38 out of 51 states and the District of Columbia in adequate energy conservation programs. Although 2006 data shows that Virginia’s place is no longer last in the nation in energy conservation as in previous years, Virginia is still does not promote energy conservation effectively. The ACEEE declares that the benefits of robust energy efficiency programs include sustainable growth in energy demand, reduced risk of blackouts and shortages, minimized need for controversial, expensive and environmentally damaging energy supply projects, and a way to cut emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. With Virginia’s below average energy efficiency standing, no action should be taken on any applications for major transmission line projects until an adequate state energy efficiency program has been implemented and it’s effectiveness established.
• In Virginia, per ACEEE, there has been zero investment in energy conservation by electric utilities, such as Dominion Power. Dominion and TRAIL’s application for a transmission line should be denied until they make investments in energy conservation at levels currently made by other electric utilities nationwide. (See further discussion below). In terms of 2004 Energy Efficiency program spending by utilities, Virginia is tied for dead-last with two other states (48/51).

• Lack of Energy Conservation programs at Dominion

o Dominion is a poor corporate example of the electric utility industry in that they are one of the few electric utilities that do not participate in energy conservation initiatives such as the USEPA US Department of Energy, Energy Star program. Energy Star has eighty one partners that include utilities such as: Delaware Electric Cooperative, Florida Public Utilities Company, Public Service Electric and Gas, to name a few examples. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory publishes an annual ranking of the top 10 green power programs by electric utilities. Dominion is not listed. See link for 2006 list http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/resources/tables/topten.shtml

o Climate watch published a list of the worst climate changing companies. Dominion Resources and Allegheny Energy are on that list. Dominion owns three of the most polluting power plants and invests little in alternative or renewable energy sources. A corporate bad-actor such as Dominion should not have the right to advance their profits by building interstate electric transmission lines that promote global warming and inflict massive environmental and economic damage on the Commonwealth of Virginia. All of their data is suspect because of their lack of corporate citizenship.

• Alternative Energy and Energy Conservation programs are enacted elsewhere in the nation that, if implemented in Virginia, they can significantly reduce electric demand. Energy conservation can be achieved by industrial consumers, often generating electric savings far in excess of residential energy conservation programs. For example, in the wastewater and water utility industry, electric savings and energy generation opportunities can be substantial. Three percent of the total electricity generated by the electric power industry in the U.S. is consumed by the water and wastewater industry. (Water & Wastes Digest March 2007 p. 16.)

o The application of combined heat and power (CHP) is a real opportunity for the local Northern Virginia wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). CHP is a demonstrated approach that has been successfully applied by numerous publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities in states like California and Oregon. For each 4.5 million gallons per day of domestic wastewater processed by a WWTP with anaerobic digestion of solids (a common treatment process), the resultant biogas can produce approximately 100 kilowatts (kW) of electricity per day.

Northern Virginia WWTP with Anaerobic Digester	Total Wastewater Influent million gallons/day	Potential Electric Capacity^1 (kW) per day
Alexandria Sanitation Authority	36.8	818
Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plant	22.43	498
Northside/Southside STP Danville	16.05	357
Martinsville STP	5.35	119
Harrisonburg Rockingham	7.5	167
Richmond STP	59.53	1323
Falling Creel STP Chesterfield	7.5	167
So. Central Regional STP Petersburg	20	444
Moores Creek STP Charlottesville	10.37	230
Hopewell STP	33.69	749
James River WPCF, HRSD	13.99	311
York River WPCF, HRSD	6.66	148
Army Base WPCF, HRSD	14.18	315
Virginia Initiative Plant, HRSD	28.05	623
Nansemond WPCF	17	378
Total Daily Electric Generating Capacity/Energy Demand Reduction		6,306

¹ Source: USEPA Combined Heat and Power Partnership. April 2007. Opportunities for and Benefits of Combined Heat and Power at Wastewater Treatment Facilities EPA-430-R-07-003

Eminent Domain Issues from the Transmission Lines

• Huge Local Community and Personal Property impacts are expected with no local or Virginia benefit from the transmission lines. The line’s sole purpose is to transmit electricity interstate and to generate profits for Dominion. The proposed electric transmission line should not be allowed because it causes damage to the Virginia piedmont, including property damage and environmental damage, without providing electric service to the residents whose property will be impacted by the line or necessary service capacity to other Virginia residents.

• Eminent Domain Concerns and Uncompensated Private Property Costs of transmission line. The 5^th Amendment protects US citizens from the taking of private property without just compensation, however, neither Dominion’s private property cost nor Virginia’s eminent domain regulations provide for just compensation to all transmission line impacted property owners.

o Dominion’s cost of the line projections significantly underestimate costs since their estimates do not include compensation for the loss of real property values by adjacent property owners, property owners in the viewshed damaged by the line or loss of property tax revenue to local governments from devalued property.

o See “Power Lines and Property Values: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” David Bolton and Kent Slick in the Proceedings of the Institute on Planning, Zoning and Eminent Domain November 18-20, 1998. A review of numerous studies determined that property values dropped between 6.3 and 53.8% due to the “fear in the marketplace” theory of damage. The greatest impacts in his study were observed in agricultural and rural properties. http://www.powerlinefacts.com

Environmental Impacts

Environmental impacts from the above ground transmission lines occur in several ways:

· Electromagnetic field (EMF) have been linked to various health concerns. Older data that had not identified documented risk due to EMF have been revised in the last five years. In 2001, researchers conducted a review into EMFs and human health by compiling large datasets, and found that there was a doubling in childhood leukemia for magnetic fields of over 0.4 µT. In 2007, the UK Health Protection Agency produced a paper showing that 43% of homes near circuits at or above 132 kV had magnetic fields of over 0.4 µT. Additional results in 2005 documented a 70% increase was found in childhood leukemia for those living within 200m of an overhead transmission line, and a 23% increase for those living between 200 and 600m. Both of these results were statistically significant. Although the researchers considered it unlikely that the increase between 200m and 600m is related to magnetic fields as they are well below 0.4 µT at this distance, Bristol University (UK) has published work on a theory that could account for this increase, and would also provide a potential mechanism for the observed health impacts.

The California Department of Health produced a report in 2002 from their California EMF program, set up to review the health effects from electric and magnetic fields from powerlines, wiring, and appliances. They concluded that EMFs were responsible for an increase in childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, and miscarriage. In 2007, UK Department of Health recommended a precautionary approach to exposure to power frequency electric and magnetic fields as a result of the link between proximity to powerlines and Childhood Leukemia.

• Hazards to migratory birds – Above ground lines have been documented to be extremely hazardous to migratory birds. Sources have documented annually between 130 – 174 million bird deaths nationwide as a result of electric transmission lines. (References: National Wind Coordinating Committee: Avian Collisions with Wind Turbines: A Summary of Existing Studies and Comparisions to Other Sources of Avian Collision Mortality in the United States; California Energy: An Assessment of Avian Mortality from Collisions and Electrocutions, 2005). Bird mortality can be expected to be tens of thousands along the proposed above ground line. Many of the bird deaths will be to migratory birds protected under federal programs. Does Dominion plan to implement an Avian Protection Plan?

• Exposure to herbicides/pesticides in Right of Way – This is another route by which impacts to human health will occur from electric transmission lines.

· Global Warming - There is clear evidence of changes in the composition of the greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere. Ice core samples show that both carbon dioxide and methane levels are higher than at any time in the past 160,000 years.(source: http://www.uic.com.au/nip24.htm ). However it is the burning of coal, such as that for energy generation, which is the primary cause of global warming. In contract, electric conservation programs, specifically since Virginia promotes little in the way of alternative energy and Dominion relies on almost entirely on coal generated electric power, would have potential to defer or reduce the causes of global warming.

Dominion’s CEO, Thomas F. Farrell, II in an address given in Richmond on September 14, 2006 states that alternative energy is really ‘supplemental’ and ‘unpredictable’ and that, “despite recent successes”, conservation and energy demand are not as important to energy supply planning as unregulated exploration for new carbon-based sources http://www.dom.com/about/speeches/091406_print.jsp The position of Dominion’s CEO is in sharp contrast to many electric utilities nationwide who are investing in alternative power sources. The question is not whether Dominion’s application for this interstate transmission line across the Virginia piedmont should be granted (The answer, by the way is that it should not.) but why is one backward-thinking, profit motivated utility allowed to function as the primary electric power provider in the Commonwealth? As the SCC, your stated goal is to “assure that Virginian’s receive quality service from regulated public service businesses at a reasonable price”. Is Dominion’s worst-in-the-nation reliance on global warming energy practices equal to “quality service”? Are Virginians receiving any service from an interstate transmission line? Certainly the impacts of this transmission line out weigh any benefit to Virginians. In support of your own goal statement to Virginians, the SCC must deny the applications made by Dominion and TrAILCo.

Thank you,

Board of Directors and Officers

Rattlesnake Mountain Association

Fiery Run and Harrell Corner Roads

Linden, VA 22642

Source: IAEA Bulletin 42,2; 2000