The Beast is loose in WV! For Starters, all our WV friends, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the new high voltage power line the BEAST plans to trash our state with in the near future, but every single one of you, no matter how apathetic you usually are, needs to know about this and make your feelings known. There have been some articles in the Roane County Reporter and the Hur Herald about this and some GREAT letters to the editor in the Spencer newspaper AGAINST it, written by some of the smartest folks I know.
In a nutshell, the plan is to saddle WV, in particular ROANE AND CALHOUN Counties for starters, with a huge 300 foot right of way high voltage power line running from Charleston to Maryland, designed to benefit the big cities up north. Ever hear of “eminent domain”? That means they can FORCE you to sell your land to them so they can do whatever they want with it. And that’s just for starters. It’s been proven that all that high voltage is not healthy for anyone to be around. And it means that some of our most beautiful and “off the beaten path” land areas will be ruined with the ugliness of towers and electric lines and a huge 300 foot wide scar that possibly will be maintained by SPRAYING POISON CHEMICALS to keep the trees from growing there. So much for organic and healthy DEER MEAT.
This project also supports the rape of other areas of the state in the form of Mountaintop Removal.
But, hell, we don’t need natural beauty, clean air and water, or mountains, do we?
The criminals in the capitol building are outdoing themselves this time.
$1.8 BILLION to create this power line. Guess who is gonna pay? The electric customers. What happened to the “Green” Revolution??? Wouldn’t that much money go a long way to build some ALTERNATIVE and CLEAN power? At the rate the political landscape is changing in that direction, in a few years, their fancy coal-to-electric plants could all be completely outdated anyhow. Unless they are simply LYING to everyone.
There was supposed to be a community meeting in Calhoun County about this, but apparently they figured they had already had enough of them. A “Community Meeting” is nothing more than a way to attempt to placate effected people with selected propaganda by making them THINK they might have a say-so in things. By the time they have community meeting, it’s already too late, already been decided. Remember the smoking ban meetings? All B.S.
I went to the official “PATH” website to look at their propaganda. I wanted to cry. They very graciously had a form you could use to send in comments if you didn’t get to attend one of the community meetings. I commented and hit “send” only to discover that function DOES NOT WORK! I went to the top and clicked on the “contact us” link, only to discover that it DOES NOT WORK. I guess they are not interested in even hearing what we think at all. It’s a railroad job.
We are contemplating holding a community meeting of our own, regardless. Possibly a good old fashioned protest? We need YOU to make sure EVERYONE YOU KNOW knows about this. We could use some good ideas, some input. If you DON’T live in WV, we STILL need you if you care about the environment, heritage, mountains, or simply detest the way big corporations and governments run roughshod over people they consider to be less than educated.
PLEASE, please, please, pass this on to all your other “friends” via bulletins and blogs, telephone, email… Especially people who live in-state and ESPECIALLY those who live in the effected counties. Nobody can do anything about this if they don’t know about it.
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Now, here is my comment that I attempted to leave on the “PATH” website. An open letter to the PATH spokespeople:
You people should be ashamed of yourselves! $1.8 Billion to support coal mining and ruin the existing landscape! Money that could be used to fund alternative and clean and acceptable energy. Public meetings are a lie. By the time a public meeting happens, things have already been decided and the goal is to simply placate the people who are effected, we have no say-so on anything. Problem is, everyone in this state will be effected! And not in a good way. The goal seems to be to simply allow big corporations to use this state for their every whim. To hell with natural beauty, tourism, privacy, property ownership, or anything else that gets in the way. You are a part of the beast!
A big power line such as this will make us a direct target for “terrorists”, no matter who you think the terrorists might be. The common ignorance and apathy of the population at large is no excuse for you to come in to this state and destroy any more of it. So handy for you that most folks simply say “Gee, I’m glad it’s not in my backyard.” Well, honey, West Virginia IS your backyard, and it’s our home! The entire state should be preserved and protected from you vultures who would use it up at our expense. The coal companies and the government have already been proven to be corrupt time and time again. You are all criminals working hand in hand. It’s called a conspiracy and it’s not even a secret any more.
You might think that West Virginians are all just dumb hillbillies or that they don’t care, but you are terribly wrong. There are folks working hard in this state right now with their goal being to shut you down.
Calhoun Underground 
AMEN
why have all these’s extra power lines? I think everybody should be having electic by now.
Why not DSL lines or FIber Optic lines for Internet
What about Cable instead of Dish network or that other crap when rain comes it nocks tv out.
How about Cell phone towers?
WHY THE HECK WE NEED THIS THING ANYWAYS??? They never give us details about it or the feature that holds?
8-7-08
We just found out about this scourge upon the earth, and, it looks like it’s going right through our property! Will there be a BIG public meeting, is it too late (I DON’T THINK IT’S EVER TOO LATE!!). Is anything organized yet that can make a difference? ANY INFO you have would be appreciated!
I wanted to add my opinion to the proposed power plant – you know the big ugly nasty power line that they want to go through WV – it is scheduled to go right through our county. A 300 foot wide swath through the woods would be devastating.
Many citizens that have lived here for years would being run out of their homes. We would hope our politicians would be there to protect us from large corporations that are in it for the money, not caring much for what happens to us.
It would be too hazardous to continue living here plus it would wipe out property values. (What a way to pay less property tax) The line is for the benefit of other states not us. Don’t do it for the tax money. Saving us 90c a month on our electric bills is not worth anything to us. Would they be proud to put up the “West Virginia Wild and Wonderful” sign under the power line?
I would suggest instead of building the line across WV and adding another power plant here… build the power plant up there and save the $1.8 billion money on the unpopular power line. Truck the coal there and burn it there. We can own the power plant, they get convenient power with less power line losses.
(You could build it on the CEO’s backyard and give him a 10% discount on his power bill and cancer treatments for the slight inconvenience. Ask for his permission but build it there anyway)
Please say no to the new power line. Even to collect more taxes is not worth selling out the people.
Work to use new green technology – the $1.8 billion dollars would buy 3.6 million of the largest solar panels. We could be self sufficient rather than paying endless electric bills.
Yes, we can do something, starting here.