What are public policy objectives of PATH and TRaIL?

by: Clem Guttata

Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 14:21:17 PM EDT

Speaking of public policy objectives, you might want to check out this link (pdf). It is Chapter 7 of the report of Cheney's secret energy task force in May 2001.  Note please the policy recommendations.  Also note the further inclusion and omission of certain electrical system "solutions" in the chapter.

These public policy recommendations were the source of PATH and TrAIL.  Just thought you might want to start your discussion here.

Although Mr. Cheney, as well as the current Obama administration, have never told us who participated in the secret talks, I'm sure AEP and Allegheny Energy were well represented.  Remember too that Kenny Boy Lay was a major force on the task force.  With a national transmission grid, Enron stood to make billions on energy trading.  Enron's space has now been filled by Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.  Goldman Sachs was one of five electricity "suppliers" that won major power bids in PJM's recent wholesale auction of power to New York City.

These lines aren't about green energy and national interest, they are about creating a national transmission grid so that energy traders can get even richer.  The rest of us, coal miners, land owners, ratepayers, etc. are just in the way.  

Mr. Cheney put it best.  We are just "constraints."  People in southern WV who fought strip mining in the 1970s used to say "to the coal companies, we are just part of the overburden."  Same thing, same fight.