SPRINGFIELD — Susan and Scott Marteney thought they found the perfect home to grow old in.
The couple purchased over 2 acres of Hampshire County land with a two-bedroom cabin in 2019. They fell in love with the sound of the screen door slam and the porch swing where Susan can sit and hear birdsong on their near-silent parcel of land.
Scott, a locomotive engineer, has yet to retire, but they’ve worked on the land and cabin for nearly seven years to make their perfect home.
But a year and a half ago, the Marteneys found out that NextEra Energy wants to build a power transmission line through the property where they planned to retire. Many of their neighbors are also in the path of the power line.
NextEra, one of the largest energy companies in the United States, plans to build a 500,000 volt transmission line running through 59 miles of West Virginia. The line starts in southwestern Pennsylvania and ends in Frederick County, Virginia, near Loudoun, the data center capital of the world.
With November’s midterm election just weeks away, and many West Virginians wanting to know where their candidates stand on energy infrastructure, data centers and utility rates, local and state elected officials from both parties have come out against the project in a display of bipartisan opposition.
Both Democrat and Republican city council members, delegates and senators have come out against the power line. Monongalia, Mineral, Hampshire and Preston County Commissions have written letters and passed resolutions opposing the project.
West Virginia House Democrats and the West Virginia Freedom Caucus have officially objected. Two Republican delegates representing Monongalia County, David McCormick Jr. and Geno Chiarelli, have also spoken publicly about their opposition.
NextEra is seeking permission from the Public Service Commission to begin the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) transmission line. Their application had a public comment period that garnered over 6,000 responses, and over 140 people and groups, from affected landowners to county commissioners, have signed up to intervene to share the harm that MARL would cause them.
NextEra must prove to the PSC that their project will not cause too much harm, and the intervenors want to prove that MARL will cause more harm than good. A public trial hearing will take place from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2.
The Marteneys are among those who have signed up to share their experience before the PSC.
They say land agents have come to their door and called to convince them to sign an easement allowing NextEra onto their land. The agents assured them that the power line would only run through a small corner of their property. But that small corner is right where their cabin sits.
“I know it’s only taking that small piece of land, but it’s just going to be right on top of us,” Scott said.
The Marteneys have refused to sign, but they worry for their neighbors who they say were “bullied” into signing before knowing the full implications.
MARL is a transmission project to create a 107-mile power line running between Pennsylvania and Virginia. West Virginia acts as a bridge.
According to NextEra Energy’s website, MARL was proposed to “help address unprecedented reliability concerns” and will strengthen the power grid.
But some concerned citizens don’t believe that. Because the power line does not connect to any West Virginia electric substations, it is unlikely that any of the energy running through the state will stay here.
The Marteneys joined West Virginians Against Transmission Injustice (WATI), a grassroots organization opposing the high-voltage transmission line construction on behalf of Hampshire and Mineral County residents.
In a statement released last year, WATI said that MARL offers no significant benefits and is designed to serve “the massive energy demand of Northern Virginia’s data centers.”
Kaitlin McCormick, a project director for NextEra, said MARL is designed to “strengthen and modernize the regional electric grid.”
MARL would connect to two substations near the West Virginia border. McCormick said those substations power multiple transmission lines that serve the state.
The 500,000 volt line could be just steps away from the Marteneys’ home, and the right-of-way would end directly next to the pavilion and hot tub they installed in 2024.
As it is now, the only sounds heard from the Marteneys’ front porch are from the birds and wind in the trees.
On a sunny day, the typical power line emits 40-50 decibels of a sound Scott describes as “bacon sizzling.” It’s about the same volume as the hum of a refrigerator and roughly 20 decibels louder than a quiet, rural area. The Marteneys say the humming is much worse in the rain.
“This is where we gather. This is our livelihood,” Susan said.
Susan and Scott aren’t just concerned about the noise — they worry about how the construction will affect the land, and the birds and deer they see run through the woods.
“I look at the woods and surroundings I love differently now, wondering what may be changed or permanently lost,” Susan Marteney wrote in a letter to the PSC. “That emotional impact is very real, even though it cannot be shown on a project map or measured in acres.”
The Marteneys try to ask land agents coming to their door about the construction process, the upkeep and what the right-of-way would look like among other things, but they struggle to get any concise details. Most information they find is at the library, online or from WATI.
NextEra’s responses have been vague, Scott said. “They don’t tell us anything.”
McCormick said the proposed route was shaped through community engagement, and the public can “continue to ask questions, review filings and participate in this regulatory review process.”
‘We did not choose to live beside an industrial transmission corridor.’
Roger Brown’s family has owned their farmland for over 100 years. His grandfather moved to Mineral County in 1921 to build their family home, which Roger and his wife Sheryl have since updated and live in today.
The proposed line would run an estimated 250 feet from their house.
The couple owns 227 acres of land, where they have their home, barn, guest house and other structures. They have 50 head of cattle, and the line would run through where they graze.
Sheryl, who is the assistant secretary of WATI, enjoys the quiet. Their only visible neighbor is Roger’s son, who will one day be keeper of the farm.
The Browns are also intervening in NextEra’s hearing before the PSC.
“We chose to live on this farm because of its rural setting, natural beauty, privacy and peaceful surroundings,” she wrote in a letter to the West Virginia Public Service Commission opposing the project. “We did not choose to live beside an industrial transmission corridor.”
The couple has been together for 32 years, and they’ve been working on the house, the land and the farm for all of that time.
The couple has made big investments in the property, which is likely worth at least a million dollars.
They worry the transmission line will diminish that value.
“Once those lines go through, it’s devastating,” Roger said. “All the investments made would be wiped out. Who would want it?”
But for the Browns, it’s more than a monetary issue.
“It means everything,” Roger said.
Brush fire and electrocuted cattle: Past transmission line accidents spark safety concerns
Kent Hunter lives a football field’s distance away from his father. Both received a postcard from NextEra announcing the transmission line running through their land last February.
Hunter grew up on the Monongalia County land where his family has been raising cattle and making a living from their dairy farm for generations. He now lives adjacent to his family’s farm, and has for the last 40 years. He is also an intervenor in the case.
The Hunter family farm has existed for over 125 years. It’s been a dairy farm, beef farm and has occasionally been used for chickens, pigs and crops.
The farm was his father and grandfather’s livelihood, and now about 50 transmission towers could run through it.
An older power line running to a power station in Fort Martin is already on the property and has caused issues in the past.
During the pandemic, a line came down and electrocuted multiple cattle on the farm. In a separate incident about a half mile away, another line fell and started a brush fire.
Safety is one of Hunter’s main concerns, along with decreasing property value and monetary impact from a possible increase in utility rates.
“It doesn’t help West Virginians at all, but we will have to pay for it.”