Residents turn out to UHS gym to oppose MARL transmission line
MORGANTOWN – Local residents filled the bleachers at the University High School gym Tuesday evening to learn about, and stand against, the proposed NextEra Energy Transmission MidAtlantic Resiliency Link project.
Speaker Bath Ann Bossio summarized the sentiments of many who attended: 'It's a land grab.' Speakers Beth Ann Bossio (left), Cathy Kunkel, Brad Stephens and Kent Hunter at the lectern.
MARL is a proposed transmission project to build a new 105-mile 500-kilovolt transmission line stretching from Greene County, Pa., to Frederick County, Va. Depending on the route selected, it could pass through Monongalia and Preston counties, along with Hampshire County and Mineral counties, Allegany Garrett county in Maryland and Fayette County in Pennsylvania.
PJM Interconnection, the regional 13-state power grid operator, selected MARL and the related Valley Link Transmission line that is planned to run from the John Amos plant in Putnam County eastward to Frederick County, Md., among a number of projects, based on its long-range Regional Transmission Expansion Plan, to address reliability issues associated with loss of power generation sources, support for new power sources and additional electricity demand in the region.
Speaker Cathy Kunkel, energy consultant at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, drew on a study she's published to explain some of the issues. PJM, she said, indicates that data centers are placing new demands on power generation, leading to possible capacity shortages.
A single 100 megawatt data center, she said, uses more power than 60,000 homes. As an example, Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, is building a 2,000 MW center in Louisiana.
Regarding MARL, she said, 13% of all data center capacity in the world is in Virginia – which offers significant tax breaks to the centers – with 80% of the centers in the 'data center ally' in northern Virginia where this line is headed. Virginia imports 36% of its electricity and data centers use 25% of all the state's power.
She projects that MARL will cost Mon Power and Potomac Edison ratepayers $165 million over 40 years, with Valley Link costing another $223 million.
A constant theme of the night – and in the ongoing opposition to the project – is that while PJM cites systemwide reliability as the reason for MARL, residents and local officials believe ratepayers and landowners will bear the costs with no direct benefit.
State Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, was one of a number of area legislators who turned out. Many of both parties openly oppose MARL. Oliverio said he hasn't taken a stance yet – he came to learn more about the project and the residents' concerns.
'Is it something that is going to happen,' he said in a conversation with The Dominion Post. 'Can it be rerouted?' He's talked to some NextEra officials about it. 'I don't see any real benefit to Monongalia County or West Virginia at this point.'
Tony Campbell, of Mineral County, attended. He is president of West Virginia Against Transmission Injustice, formed to oppose MARL. At three meetings held regarding MARL, cumulative attendance was about 500, he said. That led to the formation of WVATI.
The organization aims to stop MARL and Valley Link. And that doesn't mean simply ensuring MARL is routed through Pennsylvania instead of West Virginia. It means stop it altogether, he said.
'This is a Virginia problem. … It's irresponsible for Virginia to keep increasing their power requirements and not address the power generation issue,' he said. While Virginia claims to be green it's simply exporting its power demand to other areas.
And, as Cunkel noted, the two plants that will feed MARL are both coal fired.
Bossio shared her story with The Dominion Post before the meeting started. She works at a Christmas tree business begun by her stepfather Jim Rockis.
Along with a choose-and-cut tree business, Quarter Pine Tree Farm based in Smithfield, Pa., they also operate Christmas tree orchards, Reliable Source Seeds & Transplants, based in Morgantown and Fairchance, Pa., that wholesales seed to nurseries across the country.
They have 12 orchards in West Virginia, and two in Pennsylvania that are on one of the proposed MARL pathways, she said.
They've already lost orchard trees to a prior power line project and stand to lose more, which would harm their business and could ripple across the whole Christmas tree industry, she said
'I'm sick to my stomach because of the look of the transmission lines that we currently have. And if we have a second set, it will ruin the feel when parents and families come out to get a tree.'
She echoed the thought about no local benefit. 'We get the burden of the financial costs and how they ruin our landscapes. They get all the perks of having a data center down there. We have nothing.'
NextEra is looking to file applications with the PSC and other states' regulators early this fall. A project timeline shows expected state regulatory approvals in spring 2027, start of construction in fall 2029, completion by fall 2031 and lines in service by winter 2031.
NextEra Energy Transmission, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, operates about 2,200 circuit miles of transmission lines across North America. NextEra Energy Transmission and its subsidiaries developed, designed and constructed transmission projects across 16 states and Canada.
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