The Wall Street Journal
Millions of homes and businesses in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York were left in the dark for weeks after superstorm Sandy ravaged the area in October, prompting renewed questions about whether utilities should be forced to relocate power lines underground to keep them safer.
Those who favor power-line burial say it’s worth the expense. They believe climate change is going to bring bigger and more violent storms to the U.S., and they say our cities can’t afford to be without power for weeks on end. If we don’t demand underground power, they say, we’ll never get it.
Opponents argue that there are easier and more cost-effective ways to prevent blackouts from storms.
They believe decisions about burying power lines should be made on a case-by-case basis by utilities and regulators. Otherwise, they say, consumers could end up paying more without getting a commensurate increase in reliability.
Roger Anderson argues in favor of requiring utilities to put power lines underground. He is senior research scientist at the Center for Computational Learning Systems of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of the Earth Institute, both at Columbia University in New York. Making the opposing case is Theodore J. Kury, director of energy studies at the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center.
