By Olivia Miller, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
More than 15 years ago, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy joined landowners, community groups and the Sierra Club to oppose the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, better known as PATH.
PATH was planned as a massive high-voltage transmission project stretching from the Jonh E. Amos Power Plant in Putnam County, across the West Virginia Highlands and Eastern Panhandle, and into Maryland. Most of the project would have consisted of a 765-kilovolt line, followed by a 500-kilovolt segment into Maryland. Its proposed route crossed 12 West Virginia counties, including Tucker County and the northern edge of the Monongahela National Forest.
The power companies behind PATH said it was necessary to strengthen the regional electric grid. But we questioned whether they had proven that need, especially given the tremendous harm the project would cause to West Virginia’s forests, streams, communities and landowners.
Now, West Virginia is facing another massive transmission line that looks an awful lot like PATH.
Valley Link North is a proposed 765-kilovolt transmission line that would stretch approximately 260 miles from Putnam County, West Virginia, to Frederick County, Maryland. Valley Link currently estimates that approximately 225 miles of the line would be built in West Virginia. The project is being developed by Valley Link Transmission West Virginia, a joint venture of American Electric Power, Dominion Energy and FirstEnergy.
The companies are currently considering route segments in 20 West Virginia counties: Barbour, Berkeley, Braxton, Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Preston, Putnam, Randolph, Roane, Tucker and Upshur. Only some of those segments will make up the final route, but thousands of West Virginians are now left wondering whether their homes, farms and forests will be in its path.
Valley Link anticipates that the project would require a right of way approximately 200 feet wide. Trees and vegetation would be cleared to make way for transmission structures averaging between 150 and 175 feet tall. Valley Link has not selected a final structure design, but the possible designs it has presented include both self-supporting towers and structures stabilized by guy wires.
The project is expected to cost around $2 billion, although that figure could grow as the route and design are finalized. West Virginia electric customers would be required to pay a portion of those costs through their monthly bills, potentially for the next 40 to 60 years.
And then there is the obvious question. What do West Virginians get in return?
PJM says the line is needed because of increasing amounts of electricity moving from west to east across the regional grid. According to PJM, that growth is being driven primarily by the rapid expansion of data centers in Dominion Energy’s Northern Virginia territory.
Valley Link North would essentially serve as a massive extension cord, expanding the existing 765-kilovolt transmission system eastward so more electricity can reach Virginia’s data center corridor. That electricity could come from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania or states farther west. Because PJM generally dispatches the least expensive available power first, the line could even allow out-of-state generators to compete with West Virginia power plants.
The data centers will bring tax revenue and economic benefits to Virginia. West Virginians, meanwhile, will be left with miles of cleared forests, towering steel structures, threatened property and another charge on our electric bills.
The environmental costs would be severe and permanent. Cutting a 200-foot-wide corridor through hundreds of miles of forest would fragment wildlife habitat and expose steep mountain soils to erosion. Construction would require access roads, heavy equipment and work areas around each tower.
Altogether, approximately 10,000 acres of forest and other land could be affected along the route. Once cleared, the right of way would have to be continually maintained to prevent trees from growing back beneath the line.
For landowners, the uncertainty is already deeply personal. A line on a preliminary map can pass through a family farm, a homeplace held for generations or the only road leading to someone’s house. Once Valley Link announces its preferred route, possibly later this year, company representatives may begin asking landowners for permission to survey their property or for options to purchase easements.
Landowners are not obligated to casually accept those requests. They should carefully review any document presented by a company representative and seek advice from an attorney before signing an easement agreement. If the project eventually receives approval from the Public Service Commission, Valley Link could seek to acquire rights of way through eminent domain.
PATH followed a similar playbook. When its proposed route was made public in 2009, power company officials described the line as vital to the reliability of the grid and said its route minimized effects on people and the environment. At the same time, affected landowners did not yet know exactly where the 200-foot right of way would fall within a much wider study corridor.
The project was presented as urgent. It was presented as necessary. It was presented as inevitable.
It was none of those things.
PATH was ultimately removed from PJM’s transmission plan because the projected need for it did not hold up. That experience should weigh heavily as the Public Service Commission considers Valley Link North.
Electricity demand is changing, and data centers are certainly consuming enormous amounts of power. But that does not mean every project proposed in response is reasonable, properly planned or in the public interest. Forecasts can change. Proposed data centers can be delayed or never built. Less destructive alternatives may be available.
Before West Virginians are asked to pay billions of dollars and sacrifice thousands of acres, Valley Link must prove that the project is necessary—not merely convenient or profitable for the companies involved. It must also show that alternatives have been thoroughly considered and that West Virginia customers will receive benefits proportionate to the costs they are being asked to bear.
The Public Service Commission must determine whether the line will contribute to reliable and adequate electric service and whether it represents an acceptable balance between power needs and environmental impacts. That review cannot become a rubber stamp for a project PJM has already selected.
West Virginians need to be heard throughout this process.
Valley Link plans to hold another round of open houses after selecting a preferred route. The company expects to file its formal application with the Public Service Commission during the first half of 2027. Once the application is filed, the PSC will open a case, accept public comments and establish a deadline for affected landowners and organizations to intervene.
Intervening allows a person or organization with a direct interest in the case to participate more fully. Intervenors can request information from Valley Link, submit testimony, question company witnesses, file briefs and, if necessary, appeal the PSC’s final decision. Other residents will also have opportunities to submit comments and speak at public hearings.
Already, opposition to Valley Link North is bringing together people from across West Virginia. At least 12 county commissions, including the Tucker County Commission, have adopted resolutions opposing the project. Stop Valley Link, a grassroots organization formed by people along the proposed routes, is helping landowners understand what is coming and how they can participate.
The Highlands Conservancy has a long history of standing against large-scale projects that would sacrifice our mountains and communities for the benefit of powerful corporate interests. We fought to save Canaan Valley from the proposed Davis Power Project. We opposed PATH. Today, we continue to challenge destructive routes for Corridor H and the unchecked expansion of data centers and their fossil fuel infrastructure.
Valley Link North is part of that same troubling pattern. West Virginia is once again being treated as a place to extract power from, build across and pass through, while the greatest benefits flow somewhere else.
Our state should not become a sacrifice zone and transmission corridor for Virginia’s data center boom. West Virginians deserve honest answers about who needs this line, who will benefit from it, who will pay for it and what will be permanently lost if it is built.
We stopped PATH because the need for it did not withstand scrutiny. Valley Link North deserves nothing less than that same careful examination. Our forests, streams, homes and electric customers should not be made to carry the burden of another supposedly inevitable project without a fight.
To learn more and get involved, visit stopvalleylink.info. West Virginians Against Transmission Line Injustice also has a petition opposing Valley Link North and the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link.