West Virginia residents oppose proposed transmission line at public hearing

MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) – The Public Service Commission of West Virginia held the third of four public comment hearings Wednesday regarding the proposed MidAtlantic resiliency link, with residents expressing mostly displeasure over the transmission line.

Elected officials and residents expressed opposition to NextEra Energy Transmission constructing a resiliency link from Pennsylvania through West Virginia and Virginia.

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“We are a poor state. Pennsylvania is not. Florida is not. Virginia is not. Why in the world would we accept this ‘deal’ being as harmful to us as it’s going to be,” one resident said. “I just ask as we review, as you review, you say to yourself in the most simplest of terms, would I do this deal?”

Tom Bloom, president of the Monongalia County Commission, said the project raises concerns about land use and property taxes.

“When we started investigating we first were told, well you don’t have to worry, it’s only 200 feet from where the line is. Now when investigating it’s up to 600 feet on either side that you can’t have animals, you can’t have farms,” Bloom said. “The second thing we learned was they were sending out messages only to the land owners where the line went through, not the other 600 feet, which was a concern.”

Bloom said property tax revenue would be affected once NextEra Energy Transmission buys the land.

State politicians on both sides of the political aisle expressed disapproval of the project.

“All the people that are here today to speak out against what’s going on believe that other states, other entities, shouldn’t take advantage of West Virginians,” one official said. “The biggest thing I hear every single day, the biggest issue from people is about electricity rates. It’s about how everything is going to keep going up right now. And so this is just another situation where we’re not getting any benefit from the state of West Virginia and they’re trying to take our land to do it.”

The final public hearing will be at the Kingwood Civic Center.