ELKINS — State Senator Robbie Morris, R-11th District, has attended a pair of public events to voice his opinion about a proposed transmission line by the Valley Link company that would run through 15 West Virginia counties.   

The proposed Valley North Project would stretch across 260 miles in the Mountain State, and would run through parts of Randolph, Tucker, Barbour and Upshur counties.     

Morris, who opposes the project, attended community meetings in Barbour and Tucker counties to discuss the project with residents.       

“The project will bring in high tension, high voltage power lines — the size lines that come directly out of a power station,” Morris said. “The towers are anywhere from 150 to 175 feet tall and there are multiple types of towers they can use, depending on the terrain. But they are massive, massive structures.”   

The Valley North Project would consist of new 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines connecting Putnam County to Frederick County, Maryland. The project would also include two new substations in Hardy County and Frederick County, Maryland.   

“There are several concerns with this project, including the taking of private property,” Morris said. “Cutting through populated areas, farms, and agriculture  with high voltage power lines in some of our counties is not good for the land or the livestock. There has been data provided at the community meetings I attended about the electromagnetic radiation that comes off of high voltage power lines and I just don’t think it’s the right project for our area or the right kind of infrastructure that our type of area can support.”   

Morris said the overall benefits of the Valley North Project to area residents is not worth the cost.   

“We need to generate more power as a country as a whole,” Morris said. “The grid is outdated and it needs to be upgraded and it needs to be expanded. But there has to be other solutions and other ways to do it and running through these parts of West Virginia is not the right fit for this area.”    

Morris added that the project would be providing power to entities outside of West Virginia.    

“The power will go into Northern Virginia for data center consumption,” Morris said. “A lot of the problem with Virginia and their lack of power and the growth they want to see in data centers has been created. Delegate Adam Burkhammer (R-Lewis) said that Virginia has made a decision to cut out base load fossil fuel power in exchange for green energy and that sort of stuff, which is fine, but they are not authorizing any additional power plants.

“I have heard that they have coal-fired power plants that are idle and they could fire back up if they choose to do so to provide power for what they need. So a solution to their problem should not cause a problem on our end and cause the loss of extreme property values, production of farm land, and potential health risks. Their problem should not become our problem.”      

Valley Link has open house events planned in Barbour County on July 15 (Philippi Middle School) and Upshur County on July 16 (Brushy Fork Event Center). Both events are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.