MARL Works for West virginia
60 miles of modern transmission.
Millions in Wages & State and Local Tax Benefits.
Reliable Power for Our Homes, Businesses and Future
The Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) is a proposed high-voltage transmission line designed to modernize West Virginia’s electric grid — reducing outages, supporting industrial growth, and helping deliver on President Trump’s call to modernize America’s energy infrastructure as a national priority
Economic and Job benefits
200-300 direct construction jobs in West Virginia
$135 million in construction spending over two years.
264 additional support jobs created through local spending at hotels, restaurants and small businesses.
Nearly $37 million in employee compensation (cumulative).
MARL makes West Virginia more competitive for manufacturing, reshoring and industrial investment that depends on reliable power.
Essential for realizing President Trump’s America First agenda.
Enhances the transmission system that enables the state to sell electricity to neighboring states for profit.
Property tax benefits to West Virginia: $133 Million over the life of the project.
State taxes: $12 million.
County tax revenue (over the life of the project):
Hampshire
$47.64 million ($1.19 million per year)
Preston
$29.99 million ($750,000 per year)
Mineral
$28.89 million ($720,000 per year)
Monongalia
$14.79 million ($370,000 per year)
Approximately 70% of local tax revenue supports public schools.
“To argue this transmission line provides no benefit to West Virginia ignores the reality that many of the benefits we enjoy today stem directly from participation in an interconnected grid, and the fact that this line is needed to make that grid function efficiently and reliably.”
– TJ Meadows, TalkLine
Moving West Virginia Power to Market
West Virginia is an energy-producing state — and MARL connects directly to that strength.
West Virginia’s energy economy is already responsible for:
- 87,000 West Virginia jobs (12% of the state’s total employment)
- $700M in annual revenue from electricity exports
West Virginia’s energy economy grows even more with MARL. The line originates at Junction 502 in Greene County, Pennsylvania, a major interconnection point where West Virginia power plants, including Fort Martin, Harrison, and Mitchell, feed into the broader grid. When West Virginia generation moves more efficiently onto that network, the economic benefit flows back home: in plant operations, in jobs, and in the communities those facilities support.
Grid Updates
Engineers responsible for the reliability of our regional grid have determined transmission upgrades are needed to maintain that reliability across a multi-state area. And that includes West Virginia. The MARL line is a transmission upgrade that will provide:
Fewer cascading outages
Faster recovery
More flexibility for utilities
How Transmission Lines Like MARL are the Key to Reliable Power in Your Neighborhood
Transmission (lines like MARL) and distribution (lines in your neighborhood) are two parts of the same system.
When your lights go out, it’s often the whole system failing to respond. A strong transmission network can reroute power around a damaged line the way a highway system reroutes traffic around an accident.
Both the Trump Administration’s Department of Energy and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation identify weak transmission as a leading cause of the outages that hit homes and businesses.
The Truth About Property Rights and MARL
Some opponents claim transmission companies simply take property by force. That’s not how it works.
“NextEra works directly with landowners at every stage of a project and that commitment continues through construction and restoration. Our approach is grounded in respect for private property, transparent communications and fair compensation. This approach has resulted in 100% voluntary participation in our two recent projects.”
– Kaitlin McCormick, the Director of Development for NextEra, developer of the MARL line