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should reconsider Potomac Edison's permit.
The Board of Zoning Appeals agreed, as did the Board of Supervisors. And this was the start of a six-year RLEP-led legal battle against power utility companies.
More threats appeared. In the spring of 1971, Potomac Edison revealed plans for a junction line from Five Forks to Sperryville, up to Thornton’s Gap, and down to Luray. In late 1971, Virginia Electric Power Company (Vepco) entered the picture, proposing a 13-mile long 500,000-volt power transmission line through Rappahannock County near the Rappahannock River. Towers would be 150-feet high. Rights-of-way might be leased to oil and gas companies. Rappahannock County was slowly being sliced up.
RLEP was successful in causing Potomac Edison to drop its plans. The suggested better way was for Potomac Edison to use Vepco's power lines. A team of nine RLEP lawyers then had to be formed to handle the combined VepcoPotomac Edison threat. "Save Rappahannock" bumper stickers proliferated. Better ways were again proposed.
RLEP went one-on-one with the Governor of Virginia and his cabinet on the power line issue; and newspaper articles continued to educate the public. RLEP helped to organize similar groups in other affected counties. Leagues of environmental protection sprang up in Frederick, Warren, Fauquier, and Culpeper counties. The word spread.
Washington, D.C., newspapers reported that irate Rappahannock County landowners were taking matters into their own hands. They spoke of a woman poking
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