TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE H. WILLIAM DeWEESE
MAJORITY LEADER, PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy on Federal Electric Transmission Corridors:

Testimony as Summarized and Offered to the Subcommittee

 April 25, 2007

 Mr. Chairman, I am Bill DeWeese. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and Members of the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy to provide comment on the implementation of Section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. I respectfully offer these comments in my capacity as the Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as the duly elected State Legislator for the 50th Legislative District, which encompasses all of Greene County and parts of Washington and Fayette Counties.

I would like to offer 10 salient points for today's discussion --

 1) As it stands today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can use its federal eminent domain power to locate and construct a transmission line, regardless of what our own Public Utility Commission finds and rules.

 2) It is an unprecedented usurping of state's rights.

 3) We in Pennsylvania understand the need for reliable power, and are willing to do our part to ensure that the PJM grid can continue to meet the needs of American consumers and companies up and down the east coast.

 4) What we are not willing to do is allow the federal government to impose its will, indeed its long arm, into our backyards, our green spaces or our lives.

 5) If the federal government is to be allowed to dictate to states on this issue, where does it end? Will they be able to next tell us we must build a nuclear reactor? Or a wind mill farm? Or a hydroelectric power plant?
 
6) If section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is not repealed, it will unnecessarily strip states of their right to govern their own future when it comes to the siting and construction of high power transmission lines. Public participation and regulatory review be damned.
 
7) The following is a mere snapshot of Pennsylvania's economic, cultural, historical, natural, and scenic resources whose sustainability could be jeopardized by NIETC designations:
 As of April 13, 2006, 323,366 acres of farmland had been preserved in 53 counties under the Commonwealth's agricultural land preservation programs.

• Pennsylvania has 120 state parks on 283,000 acres, 20 state forests on 2.1 million acres of forestland in 48 of 67 counties, and 300 state game lands on 1.4 million acres. Pennsylvania's state forestland is one of the largest expanses of public forestland in the eastern United States.
• Allegheny National Forest (500,000 acres), Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area (70,000 acres), Gettysburg National Military Park (6,000 acres), Valley Forge National Park (4,000 acres) and Fort Necessity National Battlefield (900 acres).
• 42 places in Pennsylvania are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.