I support the complaint of the Maryland Office of People's Counsel (EL26-63)  asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reform the transmission cost allocation process used by PJM Interconnection.  PJM's current tariff charges every electric consumer in PJM's 13 state region* to build, operate and maintain new high-voltage electric transmission extension cords to serve data centers that are concentrated in Northern Virginia's "data center alley."

Over the past three years, PJM has added more than $20Billion worth of new transmission projects (including MARL, Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek, MPRP, and Valley Link) to import energy from other parts of the region in order to feed Northern Virginia's insatiable demand for more electricity for new data centers.  The costs of these lines will add billions of dollars to the electric bills of consumers in other states who receive little to no benefit from them.

The Maryland Office of People's Counsel has asked FERC to declare the current cost allocation scheme unjust and unreasonable, and I fully agree.  I should not be paying for the high-voltage service lines enabling some of the wealthiest companies in the world to operate in a geographic cluster in another state.

I support new cost allocation methods that more closely align the costs with the cost causers and urge the Commission to grant this complaint and reform PJM's transmission cost allocation tariff to ensure it is just and reasonable for electric consumers like me.  We simply cannot afford not to!

*Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C.