From: "Tony Toews \\[MVP\\]"
> To: snipped-for-privacy@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909 [Telecom]
> Message-ID:
>
> David Clayt>
>
>>>> It cost more initially, but in the long run they will be more >>>> reliable
>>>> and generally beneficial to the community in many ways.
>>>>
>>>
>>> How will underground cables be more reliable and generally
>>> beneficial to
>>> the community?
>>>
>>>
>> Vehicles can't crash into power poles that aren't there, winds can't
>> affect power lines that are underground, and the visual pollution of
>> underground power distribution is limited to the access ports on the >> pavement.
>>
>
> One newspaper report I just read stated that underground power > lines cost from 4 to
> 10 times as much as overhead lines.
>
> I've also read reports that indicate trouble shooting and repairing
> underground power
> lines near the end of their life is very expensive.
>
> So I'd want to see some detailed cost estmates and real world
> experiences before
> agreeing that underground power lines are a "good thing".
>
Last September, Hurricane Ike took out electricity to some 300K houses in in Kentucky. [A HURRICANE - in KENTUCKY! - some nine hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico].
My house was out for nine days.
In January of this year, an ice storm took out power to some 700K houses here. I was out for eight days.
Our electric monopoly, long-ago privatized, said in September and repeated in January that it would cost ratepayers a million dollars a mile to bury the lines. Overhead lines were said to be one tenth of that. No mention was made of what it would cost to cut the damned trees that took out the lines both times.
-- The war on privilege will never end. Its next great campaign will be against the privileges of the underprivileged. H. L. Mencken