The Public and Powerline

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Mohawk Indian Celia Laffin confronts ""Frenchy"", a worker hired by PASNY to fell the Barse elm... and John Lauzon protects his own dairy farm.

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A classic case of government against the people...

This is a story about a small bunch of independent and stubborn rural folks who joined together to fight a large state utility.

And you might as well know right now that the people lost: The electric company in question (the Power Authority of the State of New York) successfully usurped large pieces of land and constructed an ugly, irritating, and possibly dangerous 765kilovolt powerline. In fact, the 155mile stretch of giant transmission cables is "on line" today, and carrying imported electric current from Quebec ... across prime upstate farmland ... and down toward urban New York City.

So, in one sense, the outcome of this story will be a simple one: The utility did get its way and did build its huge line. However, if you look closely at the results of the people-versus-powerline conflict, you might just conclude that the rural New Yorkers (along with a lot of folks in different states who are right now fighting other electric companies) are-in the long-run energy battle-actually going to win . . . and partly as a result of this particular powerline struggle.

But the reasons for that optimistic conclusion won't be clear to you unless we back up and tell this tale from the very beginning, starting with . . .

THE POWER COMPANY

In 1973, the Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY) decided to build a 155-mile, 765-kilovolt electric line from Fort Covington (a town near the Canadian border) south to Utica. Because PASNY is owned by the state, the utility could sell tax-free bonds to conveniently raise all the funds necessary for the immense construction job. The corporation could also-by virtue of being "public"easily sidestep the court injunctions and environmental restrictions that would apply to any privately owned company.

Moreover, PASNY had little trouble exercising the power of eminent domain and taking the needed land right-of-ways from the regional farmers . . . w hile offering as little as $150 an acre for these permanent land-use privileges and leaving the acreage's "owners" stuck with paying the annual property taxes! And on top of such none-too-subtle maneuvers, the giant public corporation (unlike any private company) didn't have to demonstrate to anyone that there was an economic or energy need for the large-scale construction/ land-grabbing project to begin with!

As you might imagine, these various public utility "privileges" gave PASNY quite a lot of free rein. After all, what soundly run private company would attempt to build a set of giant transmission towers capable of carrying 4,000 megawatts of electricity . . . if the business organization had contracted to buy only 800 megawatts of current from Quebec in the first place? What nongovernment corporation would brazenly purchase over $50 million worth of expensive steel construction materials ... when the proposed powerline had not even been legally approved? And what independent enterprise could get governmental permission to begin a $200 million undertaking . . . before the builders had even faced health and safety hearings about the project's potential dangers?

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