Environmentalists File Suit Against New Transmission Line

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

October 15, 2012 | 5:13 PM

Twelve environmental groups have filed suit in federal court seeking to reverse a decision by the National Park Service, which gave the green light to expanding a transmission line through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The 500 kilovolt Susquehanna-Roseland line will increase capacity for the East Coast, which utilities say is needed to prevent blackouts like the one experienced in 2003.
Environmentalists have fought the project for years, saying it will damage ecosystems, encourage the use of coal fired power plants and result in higher electricity prices. Hannah Chang, with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, represents the 12 groups that filed suit.
“This decision by the Park Service will permanently scar the landscape and degrade the visitor experience in some of the most visited national parks in the country,” said Chang in a release.
The $1.2 billion expansion will take much of the same route as the current line, stretching 145 miles from Berwick, Pa. to Roseland, NJ. But environmentalists object to the increased height of the towers, which will rise to almost 200 feet and obscure views.