The legal fight continues over high-voltage power lines that would run through southern York and Franklin counties.
- The chief issue is whether state utility regulators overstepped constitutional bounds when they blocked the interstate project in May 2021.
- Proposed in 2017 by Ohio-based Transource, the $372 million Independence Energy Connection would ease congestion for power flowing from Pennsylvania to Maryland by constructing new power lines in Franklin and York counties.
- Local residents and businesses have opposed the project over concern that it will bring economic and environmental harm.
- The project would likely require the use of eminent domain to take land, for example.
What about the courts: In May 2022, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court upheld the decision by the Public Utility Commission to deny approval for the project.
- However, Transource also took its case to federal court, where it notched a recent victory
- In December last year, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of Transource, finding that the PUC action violated constitutional clauses on interstate commerce.
- The PUC appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, where the arguments are set to continue.
- Citing the ongoing litigation, a PUC spokesperson declined to comment. Efforts to reach Transource were not successful.
