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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Tom
Andrews |
Majority Leader Bill
DeWeese |
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New York follows DeWeese lead on power line resolution
Empire State Senate agrees that federal Energy Act should be altered
HARRISBURG, June 15 – On the same day the Pennsylvania House of Representatives adopted a resolution opposing federal authority to site electric transmission lines, the New York Senate passed a similar resolution, according to House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese.
“As I told my colleagues in the House chamber, this is not a partisan issue. It’s about the federal government usurping state’s rights and extending its long arm into our backyards and taking over what should otherwise be state utility decisions. It’s gratifying to see the New York Senate follow my lead and approve their resolution calling on the federal Energy Policy Act to be changed to reflect state’s rights,” said DeWeese, D-Greene/Fayette/Washington, who authored House Resolution 297 which was adopted 188-11 Tuesday.
Copies of H.R. 297 were sent to members of Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation and to the presiding officer of each House of Congress.
Under the federal act, the Department of Energy may designate areas of the country as national interest electric transmission corridors. Within these areas, state authority over transmission lines may be pre-empted and new federal eminent domain authority would be available for approved electric utility projects.
The New York resolution (SR-2185), authored by Sen. Joseph A. Griffo (R, C-47), encourages the New York Congressional Delegation to amend the 2005 Energy Policy Act to not allow the federal government to overrule the will of the state’s. The resolution also criticizes the placement of Department of Energy public hearings that were held hundreds of miles away from the potential impacted area.
During a DOE hearing Wednesday in Pittsburgh, DeWeese submitted written testimony expressing his opposition to the portion of the federal law that restricts states’ ability to site power lines within their borders.
A copy of DeWeese’s testimony and a petition opposing the proposed power line through southwestern Pennsylvania is available on his Web site at http://www.pahouse.com/deweese/Power_line.asp.
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