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Local residents plan to attend S.C. hearing on power line at Landrum High

Many Henderson County opponents of the Duke Energy transmission line plan to attend a public hearing the South Carolina Public Service Commission is holding at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Landrum High School auditorium, 18818 Asheville Highway in Campobello, S.C.


People who wish to provide comments before on the Foothills Transmission and Substation Project may do so at the hearing. The Public Service Commission will allow people to speak for no more than three minutes. Speakers must sign up on signup sheets at the hearing location.

The public comment period to send comments to Duke Energy ends on Monday, Aug. 31. People can also make comments by emailing the Utilities Commission at statements@ncuc.net. The docket numbers are E-2 Sub 1083 for Duke Energy Progress and E-7 Sub 1092 Duke Energy Carolinas.

The South Carolina PSC meeting comes one week before the public staff of the North Carolina Utilities Commission plans a meeting at the Blue Ridge Conference Hall at BRCC to take comments and answer questions. The meeting at BRCC starts at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Meanwhile, Henderson County Commissioner Charlie Messer said he asked board Chairman Tommy Thompson to put the transmission line on the board agenda on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
“My goal right now is to defeat (segment) 17B,” said Messer, who owns his own convenience store in Hoopers Creek. “I don’t think it should go through any residential areas. That would be a direct hit on my daughter and son-in-law and grandkids and my customers. I don’t know why they don’t go up I-26. That would be the shortest route and the least expensive. You can tell those maps were made by people that didn’t know anything about Western North Carolina.”
Messer said he wants the Board of Commissioners to adopt a resolution opposing any transmission line route that goes through residential areas.
The S.C. Public Service Commission is one of two public meetings on the transmission line at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Mills River Town Board, which has already adopted a resolution opposing a route through the town, has set aside an hour for residents to comment on the power line before its regular meeting at 7.
S.C. Public Service Commission is holding the public hearing to listen only.
“The Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits the commissioners from answering questions regarding the above-referenced non-docketed matter or discussing this non-docketed matter with you individually,” the agency said in announcing the public hearing.
For more information contact the PSC at (803) 896-5100 or visit www.psc.sc.gov.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission has not yet set a public hearing, although it is expected to hold hearings in Henderson County and Raleigh.
“The commission would determine when they hold a hearing,” said James McLawhorn, the electric division chief of the utilities commission’s public staff, which represents ratepayers’ interests. “Typically they wait until after the formal application has been filed to hold a hearing.”
The widespread interest and opposition to the 45-mile transmission line caused Duke Energy to move up its deadline for picking a route to early October, from early 2016, and the N.C. Utilities Commission opened two dockets on the proposed line. The docket numbers are E-2 Sub 1083 for Duke Energy Progress and E-7 Sub 1092 Duke Energy Carolinas. The commission opened separate dockets because Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas are separate companies under one holding company.
“I’ve stuck with original one because it’s really confusing to people,” Gordon Smith, one of the organizers of the power line opposition, said of the dockets, which were filed a week apart. “I’m just assuming that as long as we reference one of them we’d be fine. The biggest thing I hear from Rep. (Chuck) McGrady is they’re going to try to use existing right of way. We don’t know which ones that would be.”
Smith said he’s contacted the N.C. Utilities Commission and urged officials to hold a public hearing in the Hendersonville area sooner rather than later.
“I keep pushing and I have commitments from the N.C. Utilities Commission to come up here and do meetings and they’ve kind of backed out,” he said. “People from here are going down there (to Landrum).”
He said the N.C. Utilities Commission will send people, too, to observe the Landrum meeting.
“I don’t know if it’s just staff or the Utilities Commission members,” he said.