West Virginia keeps the MARL docket on its first-quarter clock

West Virginia's Public Service Commission has refused to pause its review of NextEra's MidAtlantic Resiliency Link, keeping the PJM-selected transmission project pointed at a first-quarter decision even though commission staff had asked for more time to examine the line's roughly 60-mile path through the state, its underlying need, and a June FERC order tightening interconnection rules for large loads.

The stay request came from the commission's own staff, and NextEra had already said it would accept a delay while arguing that one probably was not necessary. In comments ahead of the decision, the company leaned on the project's pedigree: MARL was selected by PJM in 2023 as part of its regional transmission expansion plan, which NextEra describes as a regional planning project, not a network upgrade created for a specific data center interconnection. The FERC order is aimed at large-load interconnection requests, while lines selected through the market operator's planning process sit outside its scope.

The commission denied the motion on the grounds that the circumstances did not justify stretching the schedule, leaving route and need questions to be resolved on the state's calendar with a final decision expected in the first quarter of next year, according to local media.

That refusal is the disciplined outcome: tying MARL's schedule to the FERC order would have let a data-center interconnection policy reset the clock on a project PJM had already deemed necessary regionally, while the state docket becomes the only remaining gate, and it has a date. As this publication has argued, PJM's greenlights clear the queue, not the site; this ruling keeps the site's calendar in motion, which is preferable to an open-ended wait for investors trying to price when the line actually gets built.