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The Loudoun County BOS , our Loudoun  delegates ,  Waterford, Piedmont Environmental Council and LTLA have gotten PJM to propose an alternative to MARL. Its an additional 167.48M for PJM rate payers, on top of that  it is still a greenfield line in Western Loudoun its just  on someone else's property !!!

MARL Alternative was briefed at the July 9th PJM TEAC (pgs 40 - 45 : PJM Reliability Analysis Update – item 10, July 9,2024 . The MARL Alternative  moves  the transmission line  from the green fields in rural mid-Western Loudoun County to the green fields in rural far Western Loudoun County parallel to the existing Mt.Storm - Doubs line,  across the Potomac through green fields parallel to existing lines  in Frederick County Maryland plus a brand new 2 mile pure green field corridor around Doubs which is Frederick / Montgomery Counties then another green field segment parallel the existing transmission lines through Montgomery County to the Doubs - Aspen Potomac crossing point . Miraculously enough Dominion Energy has somehow found a way to stack 3 500kv lines in the existing easement between the Potomac and the Aspen substation .

I attended the PJM TEAC telecon and asked: Will you (NextERA, FirstEnergy, PJM) be providing a legally binding contract, to property owners adjacent to or with existing transmission lines on their property, stating that no additional easements will be requested? Their answer was no, they will be taking an additional 75' to 100' or more depending by eminent domain from property owners along the existing lines. 

There is an additional 2 mile segment in Maryland around the Doubs substation that will be an entirely new green field corridor.

DO NOT Let politicians or  the Waterford Foundation, the Piedmont Environmental Council or LTLA gas-light you into thinking this line will be built "within the existing easements".  There is no commitment or legally binding agreement from the energy company to build it "within existing easements" this is propaganda.

The MARL Transmission line will take a "greenfield" easement from every landowner / property it crosses no matter where it is routed - unless it is routed along existing highway easements.

I also asked: Did NextERA look at any other geographic areas apart from what was recommended by the Loudoun County BOS such as Highways?

For example Route 7 crosses from West VA to VA across the Appalachian Trail and directly into Data Center Alley - The Aspen – Golden line is being built on Route 7. The Appalachian trail crossing at route 7 is ugly and hazardous – the National Park Service would be may be agreeable to adding a transmission line in that easement if improvements such as a raised pedestrian bridge were added. There are also crossings of the Appalachian at Route 9 and Route 50.  The answer was  no other routes were looked at.

The recently published paper by Mike Turner, Loudoun County Supervisor for Aspen,     Loudoun County Virginia Data Center Capital of the World "A strategy for a changing Paradigm"   specifically states that Route 7  is a viable transmission route into "Data Center Alley"

• Page 13:  "The previously mentioned Aspen/Golden line would run along Rte. 7, a heretofore unthinkable routing Loudoun County Boards for the previous 25 years had sworn would never happen. ...  
• Page 14:  "... a second line down Rte. 7 is probably next up. After that, Dominion will have likely used the last available routing to “Data Center Alley” that won’t require using eminent domain" 

Our elected politicians  would rather have the property of their constituents along the Potomac as well as the properties of citizens living in 2 counties of a neighboring state taken by eminent domain, to support data centers they approved, rather than have a transmission line built along a commuter highway that already has transmission lines on it and directly accesses "Data Center Alley".

PJM's next reading of the scope change pushing into far Western Loudoun and Maryland will be at the PJM TEAC Tuesday August 6th, 1:00pm - 3:00pm