Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 5 · column 2 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
properties — are concerned that the Commonwealth may be about to act in a way that will effectively transfer, to a third party for industrial use and corporate profit, some unknown portion of what they have voluntarily given.
The seeds of what I project as a dual outcome have already been planted. One may indeed argue that the right-of-way “agreements” orchestrated by VEPCO more than 30 years ago to enable construction of the existing 500 KV power line were vague and open-ended. Those agreements, in the landowners’ view, now are on the verge of being unfairly interpreted to allow a doubling of the power line, though this was not understood at the time and was not what was authorized at the time by the SCC. So, it should come as no surprise that landowners along that right-of-way who later donated conservation easements to the Commonwealth, or others who later purchased power line properties subject to such easements, feel that - having now held their easements for up to a quarter of a century - the Commonwealth of Virginia is obligated to defend those easements from being subjected to Dominion’s proposed industrial intrusion. Failure of the Commonwealth to do so will, in' my opinion, not only demoralize landowners with existing easements, but will also be noticed and negatively evaluated by potential easement donors all across Virginia.
In fact, easement donors along the proposed power line have said emphatically that they donated their easements to be held in public trust in order to preserve something of public value, and not to be placed in some sort of bolding category for later conveyance to a private corporation for profitmaking purposes.
If it’s approved
Several landowners have
77.6%