Abandoned, under-used power line rights of way are PJM legacy (column)

Elizabeth Oelke

This photo shows an under-utilized monopole line constructed in 2016 which runs north-south from Maryland to Collinsville near Stewartstown and New Park, close to and parallel with Transource's proposed line.

The Transource powerline Independence Energy Connection (IEC) project is planned for southeastern York County that already has five extant powerline rights of way and one gasline. Two of those existing powerlines are under-utilized; one is de-energized and abandoned. One was created as recently as 2016.

In her guest column of Feb. 9, Susan Buehler, chief communications officer for PJM Interconnection, stated that “PJM plans not just for today, we plan for the future.”

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If only that were true.

PJM is the federally regulated body that operates the electric power grid for a thirteen-State region including here in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley. PJM awarded the proposed project to Transource. In light of the under-utilization of those rights of way, we who live here in Southeastern York County do not view this as good planning for any real or imaginary future. Rather, it is an unnecessary incursion into our community and a blatant land grab through pristine farmland, much of it preserved.

We feel very strongly that these extant lines should be upgraded and fully utilized before creating any new eminent domain easement through our power-line-congested community. It is a travesty that our eminent domain laws favor the power company and not the landowner, and that productive agricultural land - much of it in land trust representing in excess of $3.6 million in taxpayer funding - can be taken by a for-profit company for a project that will bring zero benefit to the affected community. By its own reckoning, PJM has projected no increase in power demand through 2032.

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This build project is not an acceptable remedy for power needs. It is an even bigger insult to the landowners that this project will not answer a need for additional energy service here or anywhere else, but is a so-called market efficiency project. If there is a need to alleviate energy congestion at the Pennsylvania-Maryland line and to improve electric reliability in the PJM region, as Ms. Buehler states, then it should be accomplished through upgrades and full utilization of the existing rights of way.

Adding further salt on the wound to our community is the fact that they can take our land in perpetuity and then abandon the towers like giant metal skeletons left to rust and rot in our fields. It is outrageous. And now they want to build another?

It should be highlighted that this powerline will negatively impact property values here in Southeastern York County, and will also cut into our tax base in a substantive way, which will in effect take money from each and every one of us. It will be less for our schools, less for our infrastructure. And to add more salt to that wound, Transource would need to tax our infrastructure to build. Who’s going to pay for that?

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There are several ways to voice opposition to this project:

Sign the petition on change.org (to date over 4,200 signatures) https://www.change.org/p/pennsylvania-public-utility-commission-puc-stop-transource-power-lines-in-pennsylvania
Join the letter-writing campaign at the Citizens To Stop Transource website: https://stoptransource.org
Ask to join the Facebook Page Stop Transource in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Write to local elected officials Stan Saylor and Kristen Phillips-Hill.

Elizabeth Oelke lives in Fawn Township.