MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The community is encouraged to attend a public meeting Tuesday night regarding the proposed transmission line from Pennsylvania to Virginia to power a data center there.
Morgantown area resident Juliet Marlier said the 500,000-volt line would go through Monongalia County property that has been in her family for four generations. The line would originate in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and go to Frederick County, Virginia, going through portions of Monongalia, Preston, Hampshire and Mineral counties before ending in power-starved Virginia.
“Most shocking of all to me is how many people have not heard about this at all who would be affected by it,” Marlier said on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.” “Maybe not through their property, but next to their property or communities.”
Virginia has developed an insatiable need for electricity following the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) of 2020 and the recent data center boom. The VECA requires coal-fired facilities to cease operations and move to a clean economy by 2050. The explosion of data centers has pushed the need for electricity to historically high levels when the VCEA forces the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, out of the mix.
“It would be constructed using ratepayer increases,” Marlier said. “So we would be paying for this infrastructure going to Virginia, getting no benefit, and having our lands spoiled because of it.”
The proposed NextEra project would require a 200-foot right-of-way for the line and towers and another 200-foot buffer on each side. Marlier says many areas of the rural properties will be devalued and unusable in their current form.
“Two hundred feet, just for perspective, is the width of a 16-lane interstate,” Marlier said. “And we’re talking about 200 more feet on either side—that’s even more interstate, and even NextEra describes it as a major superhighway going across the lands.”
The Marlier property has been in the family since 1959 and has been used for agriculture. She said there wouldn’t be too many agricultural opportunities after the half-million-volt line was built over the top of her property.
“NextEra is proposing to bring this 500,000-volt line within a couple hundred feet of the house I just finished building, through the woodland where I practice forest farming and grow medicinal plants,” Marlier said.
Her family purchased the property in the 1950s primarily for access to the lake, and they have learned the agriculture part from neighbors and former landowners. She explained she is committed to preserving her land and working to help other landowners stop the NextEra Energy Transmission project.
“Besides coming right next to my house and across the lake and affecting the water quality of the lake, they would also rip through several acres of land we had identified as land we might want to sell someday,” Marlier said.
The public encouraged to attend NextEra Energy Transmission meeting Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in the University High School Auditorium.