FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Majority Leader Bill DeWeese D-Greene/Fayette/Washington www.pahouse.com/deweese

DeWeese criticizes DOE decision on power line 

HARRISBURG, Oct. 2 – House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese blasted today’s final decision by the U.S. Department of Energy designating approximately 50 of 67 Pennsylvania counties as a federal electric transmission corridor.

“In my testimony before Congress, as well as my comments to the federal Department of Energy and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, I have been clear that the placement of power lines should be left to the appropriate governing bodies in individual states. It appears that the DOE turned a deaf ear and blind eye to the nearly 2,000 public comments from those like me who find these lines objectionable at the local level,” DeWeese said.

“From the rolling hills of Greene County in the southwestern corner, to the expanses of the northeastern corner of our Commonwealth, it is unconscionable to think that residents across nearly our entire state must have their lives disturbed and succumb to the wishes of multi-million-dollar energy companies without any recourse at the state level. At its very core, today’s decision is wrong.”

DeWeese said he will make these points and others in a letter this week to U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

DeWeese has been fighting the NIETC designations and Allegheny Power’s TrAIL project through Washington and Greene counties since early this year. He created a petition on his Web site at http://www.pahouse.com/deweese/Power_line.asp that several hundred local residents have signed opposing the high-voltage power line.

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