Your Address

Date

Ms. Sandra Squire, Executive Secretary
Public Service Commission of West Virginia
PO Box 812
Charleston WV 25323

Subject:   		LETTER OF PROTEST, Request for a Public Hearing in Morgantown, and
Request for Comment Extension Deadline
Case Numbers:	03-1860-E-CS (Siting Certificate) and 
05-1467-E-CN (Certificate of Need for Transmission Line), Longview Power

Dear Ms. Squire:

I have the following comments in response to the legal ad pertaining to the referenced case, and the case itself:

•	The legal ad states that Longview wants expedited treatment and that we have 15 days to comment or intervene in the case.  This is not enough time.  I request a 30-day extension to the comment period until December 6, 2005 to allow me to review the lengthy documents that comprise the application.  Longview wants to build a power plant that supposedly has a lifespan of over 30 years (for electricity that will not even be used locally); it can wait 30 days for the community to review its plans.

•	As a follow up to the previous comment, I see from the PSC web docket that you continued to receive testimony relating to the transmission line application after the application was filed on September 2005.  This indicates to me that the application is not yet complete and the legal notice was premature.

•	Since this proposed new plant will share transmission lines with the Ft. Martin and other existing plants, does Longview not need to demonstrate that they have the plant capacity, equipment, and know how to protect the transmission grid system from electrical interactions that could result in outages, brownouts, line failures, or switching control problems?   Otherwise this plant will be a burden on the electricity customers of West Virginia.

•	I request that you hold a public hearing in Morgantown in the evening and not during the holiday season when many people are out of town.  The local community needs this meeting to learn more about the transmission line and about the conditions that Longview is supposed to fulfill before it can receive a final Siting Certificate.

Longview was ordered to provide more information on noise, final plant design, financing of the project, and tax-payment calculations before it could receive a final Siting Certificate.  It has provided none of this information, only excuses.  For example,

•	You should reject this application because Longview will inflict excessive noise on the Fort Martin Community.  The noise standards proposed by Longview are inadequate.  They are using the same flawed data they used before – they never redid their noise study!  They ran new models using old, faulty data.

•	Longview says it cannot demonstrate finances until it gets all it permits.  This sounds as if Longview is blackmailing the PSC.

•	Longview still has not stated what its full share of taxes would be without the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) scheme it cooked up with the County.  Tax breaks from the PILOT Agreement clearly "Offend the Public Interest."  I am also concerned as to whether this is a private project, given the PILOT tax break, to involvement of the County Commission as the owner of last resort, and possible federal and state participation in specific aspects as, for example, the water supply system in Pennsylvania.

•	In this recent application, Longview argues that the increase in energy costs makes their plant more profitable than ever, but that they cannot afford to pay their fair share of taxes.  They are blackmailing the community.

In addition to the unanswered questions asked by the PSC in the Order for the conditional Siting Certificate, Longview has failed to address the fact that its proposed power plant will have adverse aesthetic impacts on recreational areas, such as Coopers Rock, Sky Rock/Dorsey’s Knob, and other locations.  Longview has also failed to address the potential adverse impacts to the Morgantown Airport due to the 554-foot-tall smokestack located within 5 miles of the runway.

Thank you in advance for forwarding my comments to the Commissioners.

Respectfully yours,