PATH Line Means Higher Electric Rates

It looks like the power companies want to have their cake and eat it too.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a profit rate of almost 15% that AEP and Allegheny Energy can charge interstate customers for using the PATH line.  An article in today’s August 5 Charleston Gazette reminds us that these same power companies will be financing their line using the electric bills of West Virginia residents.

The companies tell us that they are building the line to expand the regional power grid.  This means that the people who will benefit from the PATH line live in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic states.  This article shows clearly that at some point, probably after the WV Public Service Commission makes its decision about PATH, you and I in West Virginia will be paying for this line that will not help us in any way.

Governor Manchin thinks the way to solve this problem is to allow the state of WV to tax these power lines to recover the money that is being taken out of our pockets.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t see how taking money out of my pocket through my electric bill, and giving it to WV state government helps me very much at all.

Read the Gazette article here and see what you think.  The article is mainly about Allegheny’s TrAIL line, but this project is a preview about what will happen with the PATH line.