SoCal halts plans for buildings under power lines
ROSEMEAD, CALIFORNIA - Southern California's major electrical utility says it's canceling plans to allow buildings to go up under its highest-voltage electric lines.
Southern California Edison vice president Steven Conroy says in a statement that the company is changing its policy because permanent structures would stop it from safely maintaining and inspecting its steel towers and thick transmission lines.
The utility had planned to raise millions of dollars by leasing out valuable real estate under its web of high-voltage towers.
Firefighters opposed the construction because they said it posed a fire hazard, while neighbors said the buildings would lead to blight.
Los Angeles County recently changed its building codes to ban permanent structures under major transmission lines.
But Conroy says Edison decided independently to halt its construction plans.
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Ontario confronts reality of being short of electricity in the coming years
TORONTO - In a fit of ideological pique, Doug Ford’s government spent more than $200 million to scrap more than 700 green energy projects soon after winning the 2018 election, portraying them as “unnecessary and expensive energy schemes.”
A year later, then Associate Energy Minister Bill Walker defended the decision, declaring, “Ontario has an adequate supply of power right now.”
Well, life moves fast. At the time, scrapping the renewable energy projects was criticized as short-sighted and wasteful. It seems especially so now as Ontario confronts the reality of being short of electricity in the coming years.
How short? A recent report by…
