Sad News...and NIMBY's at work

I am sad to say that Jackie, the lady in my last post, passed away last Friday. My heart aches for her family and the challenges that they have in front of them.

On another note, I would just like to voice my frustration in the views of people and power. I am not talking political or financial power, I am talking about actual power. Big power, power that flows through lines in the air and underground, dangerous, high voltage power. Now I happen to be an electrical engineer (very happy to say a professional one at that), and I work in power and utilities. I enjoy and like to think I understand what I am doing, although I know there is much more to learn! Right now ATC (American Transmission Company) is trying to build a 345 kV line through Dane county, that is basically the highest voltage line that WI current has. You typically see them around power plants and heading to large substations. They are big and they are ugly (to the commoner, to a utility engineer they are a thing of beauty)...but they are VERY necessary, especially in a state like WI where there is MINIMAL transmission. Anyway, my point isn't to educate you on the need...my point is that every person of any power (Mayor Dave, township heads...) try to tell you this is not needed, put it somewhere else, or don't build it at all. Now how do these people get off saying whether or not it is needed...do you as a Doctor to show you every number in your lab results to prove something? No I didn't think so, you trust them, or you go to another doctor and between the two of them you come to some decision you trust. You don't study your lab results on your own.

Well the engineers that are saying that this line is needed have gone through intense studies to verify that it is needed, and have gone through alternatives to the line option also. Not only did they do their own exhaustive study, they have had outsiders come in and do another study to verify the results. These engineers are licensed or supervised by licensed professional engineers. Now I understand that nobody really wants this in their backyard, and they have every right to voice that opinion, but they don't have the means nor the expertise to say that it isn't needed! Leave that to the professionals in the area of work to determine that!! It is very frustrating and I understand that this is a very confusing topic and that is there are many state and federal agencies to insure that the right decision is being made about where these lines go. So if you want to make a statement in the paper or at an open house, make one on why you don't want them, not you sudo analysis on something you don't know anything about!