Energy Company Proposes to Buy Off Critics For $85 Million

Virginia utility proposes $85 million to assuage critics

Dominion Virginia Power is proposing to help Jamestown Island weather rising seas as part of $85 million in conservation and environmental investments to assuage critics of its plan to erect towering transmission lines across an historic section of the James River.

The utility’s so-called mitigation projects are laid out in a proposed memorandum of agreement filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The proposal is being reviewed by more than two dozen historic preservation and conservation groups, among others.

The Army Corps’ Norfolk office is assessing Dominion’s proposal to erect the transmission towers across the James, some nearly matching the height of the Statue of Liberty. It expects to act on the proposal this year.

It's funny how "environmentalists" never complain about the height and visibility of wind turbines (never mind their action as bird murderers).

Opponents who have seen the Dominion mitigation proposals are not swayed, contending that the utility should select another route for the transmission line or bury it under the river. The towers would be within view of Jamestown and other historical attractions.
. . .
Dominion’s mitigation plan calls for land conservation, shoreline protection, environmental initiatives and the rehabilitation of the seawall at Jamestown, among other proposals. Besides Jamestown, the section of the river the transmission line would cross includes the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail and historic Indian sites.

You do realize, don't you, that Dominion isn't really paying this extortion? Dominions rate payers are. I'm not one, so I don't really care, but I just want it clear.