The State Corporation Commission is now considering Dominion's proposal and is scheduled to take about one year before issuing a decision. If the state denies the proposal, Dominion could go directly to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a permit authorizing construction of its project.

The federal procedure would require an analysis of alternative routes for proposed transmission lines, including route realignments necessary to avoid adverse effects on the environment, landowners and local communities.

The public comment period for the national electric corridors lasts about 60 days. People can submit comments online or attend the meetings.

Dominion Virginia Power has asked the State Corporation Commission for permission to build two transmission lines to meet increasing demand for electricity in Hampton Roads.

If approved, the project is set to be completed by the summer of 2011 at an estimated cost of $223.9 million, the company said in a news release.

One line would extend about 60 miles from Dinwiddie County to Suffolk, crossing Prince George, Sussex, Southampton and Isle of Wight counties. The other lower-voltage line would be about 21.5 miles long from Suffolk to Chesapeake, the company said.

The SCC will schedule public hearings before making a decision.

When great writers imagine America's most treasured places, they don't use titles such as "A Power Line Runs Through It." Yet that is exactly what is in store for some of this country's historic and recreational treasures under the 2005 Energy Policy Act ["Dominion Could Take Case to U.S.; Law Lets Firms Bypass State on Power Line Plans," Metro, April 26].

The law includes a radical tilt in favor of power transmission companies against local residents who oppose power lines that could scar some of their last, best places.

A proposed power line route in Upstate New York pushed American Rivers, the conservation organization I head, to designate the Upper Delaware River one of "America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2007."

The power line plan could permanently mar the Upper Delaware, one of America's earliest-designated wild and scenic rivers and a recreational resource that is one of the region's most powerful economic engines. As in the Northern Virginia fight, local residents are united in opposition to the plan, but the scales are badly weighted against the people who will bear the brunt of the power line's impacts.

America needs a reliable electrical grid, but cutting states and local communities out of decisions that affect them isn't the way to accomplish that.

Moreover, opponents said, the regulation could stifle exploration into alternatives that encourage conservation and reduce greenhouse emissions.

A Boston-based environmental advocacy organization is calling for the owner of what the EPA calls the state's two highest-polluting power plants to step up emissions controls at its Salem coal-fired facility.

The push follows the release of the Environmental Protection Agency 's 2005 Toxic Release Inventory , which measures the amounts of pollutants emitted by fuel-burning plants. That report, released last week, named coal-burning Brayton Point in Somerset and Salem Harbor Station as the worst polluters in the state, emitting more toxic chemicals than the next three highest polluters combined.

The Salem plant's emissions increased 37 percent over 2004 levels, according the report. Advocates at the Conservation Law Foundation say the increase points to a need for better environmental controls at the plant.

Dominion Energy , the Virginia-based power conglomerate that bought both facilities in 2005 , defended its environmental policies, saying both plants are operating well within federal and state laws governing emissions.

"At Brayton Point, we are installing equipment to reduce certain pollutants," Jim Norville , a Dominion spokesman, said yesterday. "At Salem Harbor, we are able to meet new regulations by using low-sulfur coal."

Norville said much of the increase between 2004 and 2005 at the Salem Harbor facility was due to increased productivity used to fulfill growing energy demands.

For lawyers at the Conservation Law Foundation , however, Dominion's actions aren't enough.

Seth Kaplan , senior attorney for CLF, said he recognizes Dominion has made strides in reducing emissions at the Brayton Point facility, including the recent installation of pollutant reduction equipment on plant exhausts.

In Salem, he said, little has been done to curb the output of pollutants other than the plant's recent switch to cleaner-burning coal and participation in state and federal pollution allowance programs. And those measures are short-term solutions, he said.

"The state negotiated a plan that requires them to return to the table next year and present a long-term plan," he said. "They're going to have to come forward with a better solution."