The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“NATIONAL INTEREST ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION CORRIDOR” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Senate section on pages S13254-S13255 on Oct. 23, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NATIONAL INTEREST ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION CORRIDOR
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise today to address not only a major public policy issue for the State of Pennsylvania but also a fundamental issue of fairness and the proper role of Government, which I think will have an impact on the country as a whole.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy designated 52 counties--52 out of Pennsylvania's 67 counties--as part of a power transmission corridor, more formally known as the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. This means the Government will be able to turn three-quarters of the State of Pennsylvania into a superhighway of transmission towers.
Their authority to designate this corridor was granted in the Energy bill passed in 2005 in the previous Congress. This designation would allow the Federal Government to override State authority and construct high-voltage power transmission lines wherever they please--virtually wherever the Federal Government pleases. They could place the lines on farmland, through neighborhoods, through someone's backyard, and, for example, through a beautiful vineyard such as the one I saw most recently in Greene County in the furthermost southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, so virtually anywhere in the Commonwealth and anywhere in the country.
Earlier this year, the Department had a public comment period where I and other public officials and most importantly my constituents spoke out loudly in opposition to the draft corridor plan. That draft plan is virtually identical to the final plan.
Let me give my colleagues a sense of what we are talking about here. This is a map which depicts the draft Mid-Atlantic and Southwest area national corridor. There are people in Washington who for years have been talking about creating opportunities for more power, and this is a national priority, they say. Yet we can see just by the dotted areas that there are a lot of States in the Northeast that will be impacted--
obviously, New York and Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and a few others, and then out West in the furthermost reaches of the Southwest of our country, principally in the State of California. So for all of the talk about a national priority, there is very little that impacts the middle of our country.
I sent letters, as Senator Specter did, to the Department of Energy, but so far, I am not happy to report the Department of Energy has ignored my constituents. I think this is an outrage, for a government bureaucracy to ignore the people they are supposed to serve. They pay their salaries--those taxpayers pay their salaries. The least this Department should do is respond not just in a timely way but to respond completely. But we haven't seen that yet.
Last week, I met with an Assistant Secretary of Energy to discuss my opposition to the transmission corridor as it is presently drafted. I have sent letters to the Energy Secretary, Mr. Samuel Bodman, most recently in early October. We are still waiting for a response to that, a letter signed by both Senator Specter and me, waiting for a response. I know people get busy, but I think it is time now to respond to that letter. We are also waiting for Secretary Bodman to respond to my request for a meeting. We are getting a little resistance there as well.
So while I am waiting for these responses from the Energy Secretary, I want to put him on notice and I want to put the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--which we know by the acronym FERC--I want to put FERC on notice and I want to put the Senate on notice that I have grave concerns, as a lot of people in Pennsylvania have grave concerns, about this transmission corridor as presently designed or drafted. I am outraged by how my constituents have been treated so far in this process. I would argue they have been ignored in this process.
So I intend to use every means at my disposal--every means at my disposal--to prevent the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor from moving forward until Pennsylvania is at a minimum treated equitably. So I intend to place a hold on the renomination of Joseph Kelliher, who is now serving as the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC. I will place a hold on his renomination, and I will be introducing tomorrow, in connection with the amendments to the farm bill, an amendment to prevent the use of eminent domain to take farmland for use as a part of this power transmission corridor.
One more chart before I conclude. The second chart here depicts the number of counties affected in the northeastern corner of the United States. I will speak just of Pennsylvania for today--52 out of those 67 counties. Basically, what the Federal Government has told us, in essence, implicitly--this is what I derive from their failure to respond to the State of Pennsylvania--is there is going to be a superhighway of power lines across Pennsylvania, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The Federal Government is going to take over this effort and put those lines across the State of Pennsylvania.
Well, I have news for them. Pennsylvania is full of a lot of people who are concerned about this, whether they are in small towns or urban areas, and, as we are going to be speaking to tomorrow, rural areas in Pennsylvania, farm communities. Most of those counties designated there are in rural communities. If the Federal Government and the Department of Energy or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or anyone else in this town wants to fight about this, we are ready to fight, and we will fight morning, noon, and night until our State, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is treated equitably.
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