Memo to SWEPCO

Just drop the line

I'll tell ya, folks, this arguing to help protect and save the treasure God gave us with the majesty and natural waters of our Ozark Mountains has become darned near a full-time job for this fella who was born smack in the middle of them.

If it's not a large hog factory our state wrongheadedly allowed to set up in the Buffalo National River watershed, it's the matter of that 50-mile-long transmission line SWEPCO proposes to carve out of the Ozarks.

Now an attorney for Save the Ozarks, an active group opposing the 345-kilovolt line, has asked the Arkansas Public Service Commission to deny SWEPCO's present application based on an unproven need for such a Godzilla-like transmission line and to close its docket on this shocking (sorry) proposal that so far has generated (sorry again) nothing but controversy.

I'll not use precious words reviewing all the newsmaking back and forths between Save the Ozarks and the utility since April 2013 when SWEPCO applied to build its line deep into a rural region that has seen very little population growth. So sparse, in fact, I've heard it referred to it as an "unnecessary giant power line to nowhere."

Suffice to say the commissioners, to their credit, recently pitched the whole idea back to SWEPCO after the utility has taken two unsuccessful swings at proving its case.

The utility says it's been ordered to build the line by a bureaucratic entity that governs regional electrical development, Southwest Power Pool. The other layer of impersonal utility administration perched between the power pool and SWEPCO is American Electric Power.

The Public Service Commission in June basically said it was unimpressed with the evidence SWEPCO had presented to justify the line thus far and chose to reconsider its earlier approval pending more evidence that proves the project is necessary. They also wanted to know what environmental impact this wide and permanent scar through the Ozarks might have.

But Save the Ozarks' attorney, Mick Harrison, says since the utility wasn't able to prove purported need after two attempts, what of substance would possibly change before the next hearing to suddenly make the intrusive line so necessary? Harrison asked the commissioners to drop the utility's plan altogether because affected property owners, especially, are being negatively affected as the clock ticks on.

Save the Ozarks already has raised more than $50,000 from private citizen donors to legally argue against building this line and vows to continue accumulating whatever donations are necessary to sustain their resistance in courtrooms. Thousands of citizens also already have written letters to protest the mega-line.

"Landowners have been facing loss of both property, and property values," Harrison wrote to the commission. "Many have held back on implementing plans they had for their properties."

Pat Costner, Save the Ozarks' tenacious director, explained their view this way: "SWEPCO, its parent company, American Electric Power, and other utility companies are trying to cope with rising costs and electricity sales that have been dropping all across the country for the past seven years. In this situation, it seems unlikely a restudy will make a credible case that SWEPCO should continue to propose a 345-kV transmission line or even any new transmission line.

"Meanwhile, hundreds of landowners and business owners have been facing loss of both their property and property values for more than 16 months. Their ordeal will continue for another year or more if the commission continues proceedings while SWEPCO conducts new evaluations."

Save the Ozarks proposed two alternatives should commissioners choose not to deny SWEPCO's application. The first is to allow these guardians of the Ozarks and other intervenors an equal amount of time to review the restudies by SWEPCO and Southwest Power Pool during the up to seven additional months the utility requested to conduct those restudies.

"If this alternative isn't acceptable," says Costner, "[Save the Ozarks] is asking the commission to direct SWEPCO and [Southwest Power Pool] to provide them and other intervenors with all relevant materials while this lengthy study period proceeds and allow Save the Ozarks-designated individuals to participate as stakeholders in the process of re-evaluation in the same way SWEPCO's and [Southwest Power Pool]'s other stakeholders are being allowed."

In asking the matter be dropped, Costner says, scrap the present plan: "It's in everyone's best interests, even SWEPCO's, if the commission simply denies SWEPCO's application. That would mean people here can get on with their lives. After the new studies are completed next year, SWEPCO can start over with a clean slate if they're still convinced there's a public need for a 345-kV transmission line."

It all sounds fair enough to me, valued readers. How about you?

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial on 08/05/2014

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