Real Estate & Property Law

New Power Lines

By Alan Ackerman

CQ Politics

Moving electricity generated by solar or wind power from sun-drenched deserts and windswept plains to energy-thirsty cities and towns will require thousands of miles of new power lines, many of which could cut across private property.

That, advocates say, will require strong direction from the federal government — including seizing land through the government's 'eminent domain' power.

'Renewables without eminent domain will not get to market,' said James Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy Corp.

Planning electric transmission has traditionally been a state and local function, leading to a national grid that critics describe as a conflicting patchwork of regional systems.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., has introduced legislation (S 539) that would authorize the federal government to supersede state and local authority in siting for thousands of miles of new power lines, as part of a broader effort to boost renewable-energy production.

This article discusses the issues related for the need to national coordination and construction of power lines. One has to wonder how to balance the rights of individual communities and citizens in the path of the proposed lines against the notion that the only good grid is determined in Washington.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on March 08, 2009 (boomark / email).