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California in recent years has been racking up a number of wildfires started by powerlines, both residential and interstate high tension lines. Granted, the PN
by hadlock 5y ago
California in recent years has been racking up a number of wildfires started by powerlines, both residential and interstate high tension lines. Granted, the PNW has a completely different ecological/rain story than California, but to say there's zero environmental impact (risk) is probably inaccurate
You also need to cut big grassy "highways" through otherwise undisturbed forest, and run roads through there, so that the trees can be trimmed back (ideally annually, but realistically every 3-5 years) it's pretty disruptive ingress of human culture into otherwise undisturbed wild forest.
I'm pro more infrastructure, but there's a lot to be considered here, you're introducing humans, effectively forever, to previously (and increasingly rare) untamed wild lands. Once that infrastructure is approved and built, it is almost never recalled
- truffdog 5y agoLast year one of the fires was blamed on a metal hook wearing through after 75 years in the field. It seems like doing a slightly better job at maintenance might be possible.
- WalterBright 5y agoI know about the clearcut highways, they aren't very wide, and the underbrush grows on it. I don't see a big problem there. > run roads Is that really necessary to trim every 3-5 years? One could helicopter workers in every 3-5 years. > wildfires I suspect that can be mitigated by devising automatic systems that are faster at shutting off the power should there be a break or fluctuation. Also, wildfires are inevitable regardless. Most importantly, one has to weigh the (small) issues with power lines with the environmental cost of not doing them.