[shadeaud]

Now I see that upstate N.Y. residents don't want high voltage towers along a 250 mile stretch of ''pristine wilderness'' that would ruin the tourist trade( and their views as well). They cry about the lack of electrical power to run the a/c units and yet they don't want the towers to be erected. No nuclear plants and don't mention the word coal either. I suppose it would be ok if cities like Yonkers were told they had to do without power from 6pm to 6am so the ''pristine wilderness'' can be saved.

[Bruce Kurtz]

This is upstate NY vs. New York City. Upstate we have excess electricy right now. A firm wants to take some of the excess and run it to NYC by building large transmission towers and using eminent domain where necessary. Benefit to NYC - more electricity at a lower cost. Benefit to upstate- none. Disadvantages to upstate - increase cost for electricity (right now it is 15 cents/kWh), lower real estate values for homes along the transmission line. NYC should build generating plants near the city. This issue has united both democrats and republicans in the affected counties up here.

[samantha]

#276, it depends what you mean by Upstate. Albany is upstate and Syracuse is Central NY. They are their worst enemies. If they had a Cell Tower with a rotating Camera they could spot smoke on a monitor that is a long way away,but one phone call could have Firefighters nipping it in the bud. It would be cost effective because Sprint or whomever erected the Tower could pay most of the expenses and rent the space from the Landowner (Government entity)and the Government Agency with the Camera would only have to pay for the Camera and the monitors and the electrical/telephone Works in between. This sounds much too sensible and cost effective for the Feds, and as environmentally liberal as Europe is they have little or no problem like Americans do with Cell Phones dropping calls.