Inside RLEP, Winter-Spring 2007

by Paul Farmer, President

RLEP was born in a popular reaction to a 1970 proposal for the construction of a high-power electric transmission line that would have bisected the county in a visually devastating way.

Phil Irwin, of Caledonia Farm—1812 (near Flint Hill), founded RLEP for the express purpose of defeating the proposed power line, and he, RLEP, and the Rappahannock community did just that. The power line was never built as planned, although a similar fight a few years later failed to stop the construction of a 500-kilovolt power line that today spans the northeastern edge of the county.

Over the years, RLEP successfully fought numerous battles to preserve the beauty and serenity of Rappahannock County and to protect our rural way of life. The League also moved toward becoming a proactive force in the community, today establishing biodiversity and alternative-energy projects, embracing environmental outreach and education, and promoting good government planning and decision-making.

Now, 37 years after the first successful fight to prevent the construction of a power line that would have forever marred one of the most beautiful settings in all of Virginia's Piedmont, RLEP and the county again face a threat from a new power line proposal.

RLEP has once again stepped forward to battle the construction of a massive power line through our county. The new power line would stand on huge industrial towers that will dwarf anything we have seen to date.

There is no demonstrated need for this power line. Dominion has failed to present evidence of the need, and failed to propose socially and environmentally acceptable alternatives for satisfying increased electric power requirements. Conservation promotion, demand-side management practices, technical efficiencies, distributed clean-power production facilities, and peak-use pricing strategies could offset projected demand growth far into the future. Dominion's record in these areas is abysmal. We all deserve better from a corporate public utility.

Defeating Dominion will not be easy. The utility's profit motive is huge, and so its influence in Richmond.RLEP has launched a campaign to collect donations for the work of the RLEP Power Line Task Force. Our Task Force includes participation by Piedmont Environmental Council and Concerned Culpeper Citizens. Donations collected in this campaign are potentially tax deductible and will be acknowledged as such by RLEP. The funds will be used to fight the proposed construction of this mammoth, threatening, unnecessary power line in Rappahannock and Culpeper counties. The new power line would only serve to enrich Dominion executives and shareholders at the expense of local, rural landowners and to the detriment of all those who enjoy the wide-open mountain vistas of Rappahannock County.

Please consider a monetary gift to help support this worthy, critical cause. Your contributed dollars will be earmarked to be spent locally to defeat this power line proposal. Please be generous—the costs of expert technical briefs and legal defense are very large.

Please send your donation to:

RLEP - The Alliance
P.O. Box 422
Washington, VA 22747-0422

Visit the Powerline Task Force Home Page for more information.