Too bad those lines weren't underground.

Posted by GenuineRisk (anonymous) on August 7, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I'm pretty sure you don't mean "too bad the development of this area isn't dense enough to make it affordable to underground the necessary power utilities by spreading the cost over the number of homes using the lines".

Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 10:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Oh no- it is our resident defender of all things corporate. Hide you fact checkers and prepare for an epic wordburger

Posted by AFF3 (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 3:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Top o' the day to you too aff.

Who is defending anything corporate?

IS there anything corporate to defend in Loudoun anymore?

Glad to see you are even slightly sideways on board with the idea that it is a fact that economics of scale come into play with utilities.

Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 4:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)

wordburger

Posted by AFF3 (anonymous) on August 10, 2008 at 2:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)

True to form.

So when the cost is spread to all ratepayers to protect a small portion of private viewshed, you'll be in the van with a canned speech about the greed of power companies in gouging their customers?

I'll stay tuned.

Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on August 10, 2008 at 5:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)

You mean like spreading the cost of a high voltage powerline to Virginian ratepayers so Dominion can sell power out of state?
.
Besides, I believe what Genuine Risk is referring to is the lack of long term planning so common with our current government and corporations. No planning for obvious contingencies and no thought of the long term true cost.
.
Build it cheap, build it here, build it now- kind of like your house Babs. Built as cheaply as possible for maximum corporate profit. Enjoy the indoor air pollution Lady.

Posted by AFF3 (anonymous) on August 11, 2008 at 7:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I think genrisk was doing what lots of anonymous meme-seekers do in their daily protest: every article remotely connected to electricity gets a post "too bad they weren't buried".

You are projecting and transferring again, aff.

The question is much simpler than you'd like to believe. If homes in a sparsely populated area (which is changing near Lovettsville, and has been for some time) want modern conveniences, they are going to cost. Both in dollars and in choices made.

Undergrounding is not yet the norm here, and Europe is a poor example to hold up. They are smaller, and have much more draconian land use controls.

To underground everything here would be a massive cost (particularly to retrofit it in the already sparse areas that have their public power courtesy of overhead lines, or not at all), not only in dollars but in disruption to the sacred environment everyone wants to protect with the undergrounding.

Everyone sort of glosses over that part--the huge loss of trees and disruption of ground to lay those lines.

Another issue with the la-la land approach to power is the idea that trees can coexist above ground with lines, and that is what I think happens in some parts of the low density area here. Go to Arlington sometime for a true nightmare of lines with trees literally growing around them--but of course it would slaughter that noble living being to cut the portion of the tree burdening the line.

And when a storm comes, they scream they have no power.

I don't choose to subscribe to the conspiracy theory that the estate district has been singled out for aboveground lines to sell power in other states.

There are lots more people all over, and they all want electricity.

The best presentation on the powerline protest I saw was a McMansioneer from the PW Rural Crescent who addressed the PWC BoS to educate them on how to mandate the savings (by the little people) that would make the mean greedy powerline go away: make it law to use the soft-serve flourescent swirls.

And she wasn't just preaching, she was practicing! Why she, personally, had replaced ALL 100 of the lightbulbs in her home with swirlies!

There is power need even in paradise.

A hell of a lot of it, if that lady had 100 lightbulbs!

And the cost to underground it (so we can't SEE it, because then we can pretend it doesn't exist) would be big enough that it is worth discussing the impact to everyone's budget.

And not just of digging it up and burying it, but the cost of "restoring" the environment on all that pristine property. Let's not forget the true ongoing cost of monitoring, maintenance (and "re-restoration" whenever there is a failure--requiring digging).

You want to have a real discussion about power? Sounds like you just want to call names--as usual.

Posted by BarbaraMunsey (anonymous) on August 11, 2008 at 11:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)

My eyes glaze over when I try to read Bab's er, "writings" (cough cough) wordburgers.
.
A wordsmith she is not

Posted by AFF3 (anonymous) on August 12, 2008 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)