Sunday, October 22, 2006; B06
IN THE HOTLY contested House race in Virginia's 10th District, one of the few things on which Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R) and challenger Judy Feder (D) agree is that a proposed high-voltage electricity line should not bisect the district. We hate to spoil bipartisan concord, but both candidates are being irresponsible.
Northern Virginia already experiences unnecessarily high electricity prices because it lacks the infrastructure to import power from regions where it's cheap; the proposed line would address that problem by connecting booming areas such as Fort Belvoir and Tysons Corner to generators in the Midwest. The growth in Northern Virginia involves the creation of electricity-guzzling warehouses full of computer servers, and the power crunch will get worse if no transmission line is built. Blackouts can be expected starting in 2011.
The line's critics worry that a procession of 155-foot pylons will spoil Civil War battlefields and conservation areas. This is a legitimate concern, but it's premature to be pessimistic. The power companies are studying a corridor 20 miles wide, but the power line requires a right of way only 150 feet wide, so there is scope for choosing a route that would minimize disruption. The planning process will involve public consultation and take months, giving conservationists that chance to consider which historic or scenic areas most need protection.
The concerns in Virginia form part of a larger national debate about electricity policy. The authority to approve transmission lines has traditionally resided with states, an arrangement that predates the creation of a complex grid to transport electricity across state borders. Unfortunately, states have inadequate incentives to put up ugly pylons whose benefits will be partially captured by neighboring states, so the expansion of transmission capacity has lagged behind the nation's power needs. Last year, to break this logjam, Congress gave the federal government the right to approve power lines in especially congested areas if states fail to do so. The Energy Department has determined that the Washington region is among the most congested in the country. So if Virginia politicians conspire to block the power line, the feds may ultimately overrule them.
We hope it doesn't come to that. Northern Virginia consumes more than twice as much electricity as it produces. The region's political leaders can surely grasp the case for new transmission to import electricity.
