Letter to SCC Clerk of the Commission

Mr. Joel H. Peck
Clerk of the Commission
State Corporation Commission
c/o Document Control Center
The Tyler Building
1300 E. Main Street
Richmond, VA 23219

RE: Commonwealth of Virginia, ex rel
Department of Historic Resources v Highland New Wind Development, LLC
Case No. PUE-2009-00092

Dear Mr. Peck,

I am writing to express my concern that the attached letters, submitted to State Corporation Commission General Counsel William Chambliss from West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall, West Virginia Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Susan Pierce, American Battlefield Protection Program Chief Paul Hawke, and Archaeologist W. Hunter Lesser in regards to the impact of Highland New Wind Development on Camp Allegheny Battlefield were not entered into the above-named case file. In addition, letters sent to Mr. Chambliss from individuals around the nation and to whom Mr. Chambliss replied with official thank-you notes have similarly been excluded from the official record of documents regarding this case.

Certainly, the authors of these letters were unaware that writing to Mr. Chambliss, rather than to you, would result in the exclusion of their letters from the case file. As an unfortunate and unintended consequence, their voices have been silenced. The concerns of experts, government officials, and dozens of American citizens have not been heard regarding a matter of national importance--the precedent-setting impact of an industrial wind utility on a Civil War Battlefield listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Their exclusion from the process does not serve the public interest.

Indeed, one could argue that excluding these comments from consideration by the Commissioners does damage to the public interest by reinforcing the false assertion, repeated by the wind developer throughout this process, that Camp Allegheny is an obscure battlefield nobody other than a few locals knows about, cares about, or visits. The many letters received by Mr. Chambliss belie this claim. Justice is not served by omitting them from the record.

I respectfully request that all correspondence received by Mr. Chambliss regarding this case be moved into the case file. The public interest cannot be fully considered, much less fully served, until the case file contains the full record of public concern.

Thank you for your consideration.

Dawn Baldwin Barrett

cc: William H. Chambliss, General Counsel, SCC
William F. Stephens, Director, Division of Energy Regulation, SCC
Alexander Skirpan, Jr., Senior Hearing Examiner
Nick Rahall, II, Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources
Paul Hawke, Chief, ABPP, National Park Service
Susan Pierce, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, WVDHC
W. Hunter Lesser, Archaeologist