Winners all around for TrAIL developments
Editorial
August 17, 2008
What a week for Allegheny Energy and its subsidiary, TrAIL Co.
And what a week for West Virginia and Marion County.
On Friday, Allegheny Energy announced that it had secured about half of the $1.3 billion in financing to construct its Trans-Atlantic Interstate Line (TrAIL), the 500-kilovolt transmission line from southwestern Pennsylvania through West Virginia to northern Virginia to meet the growing energy needs of the Mid Atlantic Region.
Company officials have said without the major line, customers could face major issues like rolling blackouts, brownouts and power interruptions. The 240-mile-high-voltage power line through the region will increase electrical supply to 13 eastern states.
While there is still some protest of the major project — the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club plans to challenge the Public Service Commission’s approval of the project in the state Supreme Court — the company has done right by West Virginia.
Allegheny Energy changed the route of TrAIL through the state to more closely match existing power lines, and after negotiations with Gov. Joe Manchin, they also agreed to a package that will reduce rates for state customers.
The company will also support Manchin’s proposal to tax the construction and transmission of the line, so that state residents will benefit from the energy running over our heads to other states.
“I intend to work collaboratively with Gov. Manchin and the Legislature in support of the governor’s proposals to ensure that our customers and the state will benefit from the construction of the line,” Paul J. Evanson, CEO of Allegheny Energy, said in a press release last week. “The completion of this project can and should be of great benefit to all parties.”
But perhaps the most exciting news about TrAIL last week was the announcement that the project’s headquarters will be constructed right here in Marion County. The announcement was made during the Marion County Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner Thursday night as the company was accepting the Corporate Citizen of the Year award.
The new $50 million headquarters will be constructed at the I-79 High Technology Park and will bring 150 new jobs to Marion County, some transfers and some new hires. This will be the company’s fourth facility in the county and will bring the total of local Allegheny Energy employees to more than 600.
Certainly Allegheny Energy will benefit from the TrAIL project, but we think the City of Fairmont, Marion County and West Virginia are real winners, too. Good jobs, reduced rates, long-term income for the state, new residents, B&O taxes from the construction of the facility, support of the service industry — this announcement is the best news we’ve heard in this county for some time.
“It will be a very nice facility. We are looking forward to it,” Jim Haney, Allegheny Energy vice president, told the county’s business leaders who attended Thursday’s chamber event.” This will be nice for Marion County in particular. It shows something we all know, that Marion County is a great place to live, work and do business.”
That’s something that we’ve known all along, but it’s nice for it to be recognized by an out-of-state company.
