West Virginia Is Not District 12

The West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) is being asked to approve the construction of massive, high-voltage transmission lines that will cut across our mountains, farms, forests, and communities. These projects are being presented as necessary, urgent, and inevitable - critical infrastructure required to address regional energy needs.

But when you strip away the technical language, the consultant reports, and the polished talking points, one uncomfortable truth remains:

These lines are not being built to solve a West Virginia problem.

They are being built to fix energy deficiencies created by Virginia - deficiencies that are the direct result of Virginia’s own policy choices, growth strategies, and planning failures.

The question before the West Virginia Public Service Commission is not whether Virginia needs power. It clearly does. The real question is whether West Virginia should be forced to sacrifice land, landscapes, property rights, and ratepayer dollars to solve problems it did not create and from which it will see little to no benefit.

A Problem Created in Virginia

Over the last decade, Virginia has pursued an aggressive economic development strategy centered on rapid population growth, urban expansion, and most notably, the explosive rise of data centers. Northern Virginia has become the data center capital of the world, hosting thousands of facilities that consume staggering amounts of electricity, often equivalent to small cities.

This growth did not happen by accident. It was encouraged by state policy, tax incentives, and development decisions made by Virginia lawmakers, regulators, and utilities. Those same decision-makers chose not to require sufficient in-state power generation to accompany that growth. They chose not to harden their own grid or fully plan for the long-term energy consequences of their economic strategy.

Now the bill has come due.

Instead of acknowledging these choices and addressing the problem at its source by building generation closer to the demand, modernizing Virginia’s own infrastructure, or rethinking unsustainable growth patterns, Virginia utilities are looking west. They are asking- no demanding for West Virginia to host the transmission corridors necessary to move massive amounts of electricity across state lines to feed Virginia’s demand.

Who Benefits and Who Pays

Supporters of these transmission projects often speak in vague terms about “regional reliability,” “grid resilience,” and “shared benefits.” But when the details are examined, the imbalance becomes obvious.

The electricity carried by these lines is intended primarily to support Virginia’s economy. It will fuel Virginia’s data centers, power Virginia’s cities, and enable Virginia’s job growth. The tax revenue generated by this growth will flow into Virginia’s coffers, not West Virginia’s.

West Virginians, meanwhile, are left with the costs.

Landowners face the threat of eminent domain, losing property that may have been in their families for generations. Communities must live with 150 to 200 foot transmission towers dominating ridgelines, valleys, and viewsheds that define our state’s identity. Forests are cleared. Habitats are fragmented. Tourism, recreation, and property values are placed at risk.

And on top of the physical and environmental damage, West Virginia ratepayers are being asked to help underwrite the cost of building this infrastructure; infrastructure that provides little direct benefit to them.

This is not shared sacrifice. It is one-sided exchange -  not quid pro quo or in business terms, not an even handed exchange.

The Role of the West Virginia Public Service Commission

The West Virginia Public Service Commission was not created to solve the policy failures of neighboring states. Its mandate is not regional economic optimization. Its responsibility is clear and specific: to act in the best interests of West Virginia ratepayers and taxpayers.

That responsibility includes scrutinizing whether a proposed project is truly necessary for West Virginia, whether the benefits outweigh the costs, and whether the burdens imposed on citizens are justified by corresponding gains.

When a project’s primary purpose is to serve out-of-state load growth; growth created by another state’s deliberate choices; the PSC must ask hard questions. Approving such a project without clear, substantial, and direct benefits to West Virginians would represent a failure of its core mission.

To do otherwise is to redefine the PSC’s role from protector of West Virginia consumers to facilitator of external interests.

A Dangerous Precedent

If the PSC approves these projects on the grounds that “the region needs them,” it sets a dangerous precedent.

It signals that West Virginia can be used as a utility corridor for wealthier states unwilling to deal with the consequences of their own growth. It tells future developers and utilities that our land is available, our people are expendable, and our regulatory bodies can be persuaded to prioritize outside demand over in-state interests.

Once that door is opened, it becomes very difficult to close.

West Virginia has spent decades trying to escape the legacy of being treated as a resource colony; extracting coal, timber, and labor for others while bearing the environmental and social costs at home. High-voltage transmission lines represent a modern version of the same old story: different technology, same imbalance.