Senators Send Letter to Secretary of Energy
Washington, D.C. — Today U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey expressed their disappointment regarding the Department of Energy’s final designation of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC) in a letter to the Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman. The final proposal, which remains unchanged from the draft proposal, establishes a Mid-Atlantic corridor that encompasses fifty out of Pennsylvania’s sixty-seven counties.
“It is disheartening that after strong opposition from local and state governments and a public outcry of opposition that the Department plans to proceed with no changes,” the letter reads.
The Pennsylvania Senators also repeated an earlier appeal to the Secretary to fully involve state and local communities in the siting and alignment of necessary power lines.
“As the Federal Electric Regulatory Commission moves forward in implementing this designation, we would expect states and local communities to be inherently involved in the process,” they wrote.
Senators Specter and Casey had expressed concerns regarding the draft NIETC proposal in separate letters to Secretary Bodman over the summer.
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