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| Power line vote put off for up to 30 days |
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By SETH AUGENSTEIN
saugenstein@njherald.com
NEWARK
— The state’s Board of Public Utilities decided it needs more concrete
proof, and at most a month, to decide on the Susquehanna-Roseland power
transmission line.
The meeting was held Friday after a “flurry” of
legal paperwork debating the necessity of the 500kv line upgrade, in
light of similar “reliability” line projects being withdrawn by power
companies in Virginia and Maryland.
The five BPU commissioners met
and each spoke of their positions for just more than 20 minutes, but in
that short time they discussed several highly-charged aspects of the
plans for the 45-mile line crossing from Pennsylvania and across
northwestern New Jersey.
Commissioner Frederick Butler mentioned he
had received personal calls from PSE&G asking for an expedited
decision on the power line. Several other commissioners nodded in
agreement as he irately recounted the contact.
A spokeswoman for
PSE&G said the company did not “believe it has engaged in improper
ex parte discussions with BPU commissioners.”
But despite the
out-of-office background, the bulk of the official meeting was devoted
to the determination at hand: whether the question of “need” — the
decider among the criteria — had been satisfied, in light of the
intended cancellation of plans for two similar transmission lines. In
less than a month, the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, or
PATH line, in Virginia, and the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway, or MAPP
line, in Maryland have been voluntarily withdrawn by power companies
owing to decreased power-load forecasts by grid operator PJM
Interconnection.
Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso, who had presided
over the evidentiary hearings and previous testimony, began by asking
the other commissioners to wait until PJM could explain how the
Susquehanna-Roseland was still necessary, in context of the other
lines’ changing projections. He said a brief letter the board received
from PJM the night before, in which the PJM vice-president who
testified in November again assured the board the New Jersey line was
still needed, was not thorough enough to warrant an immediate decision.
“We need more than this summary statement,” Fiordaliso stated. “The changes in PATH and MAPP are extraordinary.”
The
other commissioners agreed. Nicholas Asselta said he had not been
contacted by PSE&G, and also mentioned he understood the importance
of improving reliability, and moving ahead as quickly as possible.
Jeanne
Fox, the board’s president, completed the unanimous agreement, saying
she needed to get “into the weeds” on the new facets of the issue. She
added that PSE&G’s construction schedule would not be adversely
effected by the extra month, at most.
“I am confident that this brief delay will not impact that schedule,” she said.
Local opponents of the line said the decision left them hopeful for the ultimate
outcome.
“Confident? Not at all. Hopeful? Absolutely,” said Steve Rosenberg, a Byram neighbor of the line.
“I’m delighted — the delay is fantastic,” said Carl Lazzaro, a Fredon
committeeman.
The
Susquehanna-Roseland power line would double the height of the existing
230 kv line for its 45-mile stretch in New Jersey. Pennsylvania’s
counterpart to BPU, the Public Utilities Commission, approved its
100-mile stretch of the line Thursday, in a split vote.
The power
company signed agreements with three of the 16 New Jersey
municipalities affected by the plan this week; in exchange for money,
Sparta, Stillwater and Hopatcong agreed to stay out of the
ongoing fight against the line.
After
Friday’s delay announcement, a PSE&G spokeswoman said the company
was “disappointed” with the outcome so far. Both the grid operator and
power company have maintained that the line is necessary to ensure that
reliability violations and brownouts do not pop up on the line
beginning in 2012.
The PSE&G spokeswoman confirmed that
company officials have recently met with Gov. Jon Corzine, who will be
replaced by Gov.-elect Chris Christie Tuesday. Powerline objectors say
they are suspicious of the meetings, and what their effect has been on
the last few weeks of dramatic developments surrounding
Susquehanna-Roseland. The spokeswoman said the meetings regularly
happen; she did not specify what their content may have been.
“As a major employer and service provider in the state, we routinely meet with the governor on a variety of issues,” she stated.
Created: 1/16/2010 | Updated: 1/16/2010
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