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In the hand-wringing wake of the biggest power blackout in U.S. history, federal energy legislation is gaining momentum that could ease the way for electric utilities to build high-capacity interstate transmission lines. Even in your backyard.
The Bush administration and House Republicans back a measure that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to allow the seizure of property along proposed power line routes - if the agency found the new lines would ease congestion along the power grid.
Well, duh. The United States's electricity grid is 20 years behind the nation's needs. Any new transmission line would ease congestion.
Power companies would compensate land owners, the legislative proposal says, but could override state and local efforts to delay or block the power lines. The energy legislation - with its property seizure, or "eminent domain," clause - is not assured of becoming law just yet. A Senate version of the bill does not even include such a measure.
But last month's blackout, cascading from Ohio north to Canada and east to New England, weakened longstanding resistance to adding new interstate transmission lines.
That, at least is the big power picture. On the local level, it's a very different scene.
Florida's big electric utilities still find that expanding hefty transmission lines is about as easy as convincing alligators to go vegetarian.
The issue, of course, is NIMBY - the now standard acronym for "Not In My Back Yard."
Everybody wants abundant electricity. But nobody wants to live or work near the largest load-bearing power lines. You know the lines - those towering ones that constantly hum. The problem, say power companies, is Florida is so crowded that there are no longer areas remote enough to run the big transmission lines NIMBY-free.
These days, almost anywhere is somebody's backyard. Health threats? Loss of property values? Aesthetic nightmares? These are just some of the reasons people are so quick to raise a stink to keep power lines far, far away.
Consider the case of Tampa Electric and its misguided quest last month to start installing massive power poles. Some are nearly 3 feet wide at their base and stand some 125 feet tall in the front yards of Tampa's Egypt Lake neighborhood. Poles have popped up alongside homeowners' driveways and within 30 feet of living room windows.
That was pitiful enough. But Tampa Electric never bothered in advance to tell the neighborhood it was planting Sequoia-sized poles. The utility at first argued that plowing straight through this neighborhood was cheaper than finding a route along Waters Avenue, the nearby crowded and commercial strip.
The power lines have to go somewhere, Tampa Electric says.
Wrong answer. The pole debacle has Tampa Electric in hot water and a public relations nightmare. Law firms now represent the neighborhood on a contingency fee basis, and want the poles plucked from the ground. An Oct. 4 meeting set up by Tampa Electric? Too little, too late, the neighborhood says.
It did not have to turn out this way.
Last fall, Progress Energy Florida ran into sharp criticism when the utility planned to install 90-foot, higher-voltage concrete power poles through the Pine Ridge subdivision in Citrus County. After complaints, Progress Energy opted instead to install the equipment outside the subdivision and run traditional, 45-foot wooden poles through the neighborhoods.
That was then. Now Progress Energy is in another spat west of Tallahassee. In Gadsden and Liberty counties, the utility is planning a 19-mile, 115-kilovolt transmission line to meet growing power demands. Small towns such as Greensboro are up in arms.
Progress Energy held a public meeting, but the community and town council still rejected the project. Another meeting is scheduled in October.
The power lines have to go somewhere, Progress Energy insists.
Finally, let's not forget Florida's biggest electric utility, Florida Power & Light based in Miami.
Earlier this month, city commissioners of Miramar (just north of Miami) voted 3-2 against FP&L building an electrical substation, which was planned for an area near two neighborhoods. With the substation blocked, FP&L had to spend up to $800,000 on temporary power lines.
"We are happy. We don't want that thing there," area resident Yvonne Bejar told the Miami Herald. "We were a little nervous that they were going to approve it. We are surprised."
Local residents argued the substation would ruin property values and was too close to the nearest home. FP&L said that was not the case, countering that a substation was needed in an area where population is expected to grow rapidly in the next decade.
The substation needs to go somewhere, FP&L says.
So far, Not-In-My-Back-Yard tactics have helped some communities avoid the worst of crude electric utility planning. But the recent blackout and legislative proposals that include the right to seize private property will strengthen the hand of the electricity industry. And possibly numb the influence of NIMBY.
- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.