Idaho Power Co. and Rocky Mountain Power, who want to snake a $7 billion network of 190-foot transmission towers across the West, face a tangled matrix of state and local barriers as challenging as the hardships faced by the pioneers who traveled much the same route on the Oregon Trail a century and a half ago.
The 1,500-mile route between Boardman, Ore., and Windstar station in Wyoming would connect power plants to energy users for decades to come.
“These are projects everybody needs and nobody wants,” said Lisa Grow, Idaho Power’s vice …

The sale of more than 100 homes in Tsawwassen, B.C, bought by BC Hydro after residents objected to overhead power lines, could be a boon for buyers.
The Crown corporation purchased 105 homes in the area this year as part of a voluntary buyout program offered to residents who didn’t want to live with the high-voltage overhead power lines running through their yards.
Homeowners had protested and fought the controversial power lines for years, citing evidence they cause cancer and demanding that the province bury them underground.
Earlier this year, BC Hydro extended …

The Fredon school board’s threat to close a school because of high levels of electromagnetic fields has revived a decades-old debate over EMF safety.
EMFs are invisible lines of force that surround all electrical equipment, from high-voltage transmission lines to home appliances. Humans routinely make contact with elevated EMFs with no adverse effects, but some science has shown prolonged exposure can increase the risk of childhood leukemia, brain tumors, early-term miscarriages and other medical problems.
Such a finding was produced by a 2008 study conducted by the World Health Organization, which found …

Power was knocked out for at least 500 people Saturday afternoon, after a nursery dump truck tore down power lines in Southwest Las Vegas neighborhood.
Neighbors in the area of Teneya & Eldora watched as a Star Nursery truck drove down the street with the bed still up bringing down several power lines and two power poles. The lines fell dangerously close to at least one home blocking the family inside from being able to leave.
Nevada Energy crews quickly responded and cut power to the lines to keep anyone from getting …

A group of homes near Vancouver, at the centre of a bitter fight that pitted property rights against the province’s utility company, are going back on the market.
Facing the wrath of Tsawwassen residents who wanted to block the
construction of a high-voltage power line in their neighbourhood, BC Hydro spent $62 million earlier this year buying out dozens of angry homeowners.
“Offers were made to residents — 138 of them — and we bought 105. And now we are selling those 105 in order to re-coup the costs for the BC Hydro …

You may not think that small kitchen appliances should be given much thought when it is time to purchase a new one because they are smaller and generally inexpensive in comparison to major home appliances, which are generally larger and static in that they can not be moved all that easily such as fridge- freezers and cookers.
But small appliances are very important as they give the finishing touches to your kitchen and are things that you probably use the most. And not all small kitchen appliances are the same. With …

The two-week reprieve from construction delays that weekend Downtown Connector motorists have enjoyed ended at 9 p.m. Friday, as the summer-long repaving project shifted back into high gear.
Officials with the state Department of  Transportation are warning northbound motorists to expect heavy delays this weekend between 10th Street and the Brookwood Interchange as resurfacing related to the 14th Street Bridge project continues.
The three regular travel lanes to I-75 northbound will be shut down from until 5 a.m. Monday, according to the DOT.  All I-75 northbound traffic will have to use the …

St. Louis County officials say a road similar to the Forest Park Parkway could help link Clayton and south St. Louis County and considerably ease traffic congestion.
One possibility for that kind of road would connect Laclede Station Road in Maplewood with River des Peres Boulevard in St. Louis, officials have said.
The county on Tuesday received proposals from eight national consulting companies for a study that could lead to a “South County Connector.” The selected consultant would look at that idea — and others — to find the best way to …

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has scheduled public meetings in Ignacio and Farmington next month to explain the rationale for installing a 230-kilovolt transmission line between the two towns.
The line, for which a corridor has not yet been chosen, is needed to support growth in the region as well as the work of the gas and oil industry, Tri-State public affairs manager Brad Jones said during an interview last week at The Durango Herald. Tri-State’s existing generating capacity will supply the power.
A 115-kilovolt Tri-State line between Durango and Bayfield that …

CALGARY – Calgary’s mayor and aldermen say they don’t see the need for costly Edmonton-to-Calgary electricity transmission lines that consumers will have to help pay for, unofficially joining the anti-line campaign of city-owned power firm Enmax.
Those critics included the alderman bidding to join some of the line’s biggest promoters: Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart, who’s running for the Stelmach Tories in next week’s Calgary-Glenmore byelection.
“I haven’t bought into the ‘blackout, brownout’ concern to raise fear among people,” she said, referring to Energy Minister Mel Knight’s warnings that without the major transmission network …