The Virginia Marine Resources Commission unanimously approved Dominion Virginia Energy’s plans to build a high voltage line across the James River, from Surry County to James City County near Skiffes Creek.
That approval was a key condition to the Army Corps of Engineers decision earlier this month to grant the project a preliminary permit.
Commission staff said they believed the Corps review of the project and its compliance with federal environmental, endangered species and historic preservation law as well as the mitigation plan Dominion negotiated with federal and state agencies address the state’s marine resources concerns.
The staff also said they believed other alternatives were too costly or did not meet those environmental standards.
Historic preservation groups have said the project would wreck an historical landscape, the area of the James where the first English colonists in North America settled.
More than 26 individuals, groups and companies filed protests of Dominion’s plan with the commission.
This story will be updated
