From the Daily News:
City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley plans to introduce legislation next week that would require utility companies to bury utility lines underground - a pricey proposal that Con Edison officials have said could lead to costly rate hikes.
Queens has by far the most overhead power lines in the city, with more than 5,500 miles of exposed wires. Staten Island comes in second with just over 4,000 miles. There are no overhead Con Edison lines in Manhattan.
Crowley called the lines "unsightly" and said they can become dangerous - and start fires - when trees knock them down. A loss of power can also pose safety risks to seniors and the disabled, she said.
"They have to make this investment" to submerge the wires, she said of the company. "The longer they wait, the more expensive it's going to be."
But installing an electrical system underground is simply "too expensive," said Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert.
Burying the cables would cost the utility roughly $1 million per mile - a tab that would ultimately be picked up by customers, he said.
That doesn't even include the $5,000 to $10,000 each customers would be charged to connect to the new system, he said.
Brooklynites are not happy with the damage that tree pruning around power lines does to street trees.
17 comments:
It would be more expensive in the short term. Honestly though, we've got to do this in the long term.
"a pricey proposal that Con Edison officials have said could lead to costly rate hikes."
These aholes don't need any excuses to raise the rates...
There are no overhead Con Edison lines in Manhattan.
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Of course not. we in the servant-storage parts of the city simply are not equal to the same services.
Sure, because there is never a problem with underground lines. Just ask the residents of Astoria who experienced an extended blackout a few years back.
And as a con ed customer, NO I do not want to pay for this.
Sure, because there is never a problem with underground lines.
Yeah, there's this ridiculous assumption that underground lines are impervious to service disruptions. And when these lines do have issues, it's a hell of a lot more costly and difficult to fix. And I wonder if the City Council member has any idea how timely and costly it would be to bury every single line.
On balance, sure underground lines are better, but by and large politicians are just clueless about the utility industry.
No more rate hikes, no more excuses, if your incumbent votes in favor of hikes, kick their ass out the next election.
Interesting question and we know that since all the think tanks like Pratt are eyeball deep in the cult of development we will not get an easy answer:
add up all the tax breaks to developers, subsidies for development (like that $40 million tree planting at Queens Plaza)
now add up the cost of putting lines underground.
should be an interesting comparison. Of course if they did it, you know damn well the first place to get it will be the waterfront high rises.
After all, those people in western Queens utilities thinking that their service area would be maintained, and instead LIC got power while Woodside and Astoria burned.
No more rate hikes, no more excuses, if your incumbent votes in favor of hikes, kick their ass out the next election.
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And we should wait to kick their silly asses out because...
Can I just get a little windmill on top of my house? It would look a lot prettier that all the stupid, shitty satellite dishes all over the neighborhood.
Imagine all the power I could have amassed last weekend! No fracking required!
Most areas in Elmhurst are served by underground wires. but there are still plenty more street with overhead electric wires. Get CE to bury them underground.
What does 'Mystery Man' Mike Gianaris think? After all, he was in Albany (a great name on anyone's resume for creditably don't you think?) for all of two years and the locals considered him an expert on power generation.
Of course, the locals think he is swell - but anyone living off Tony Bennett Boulevard would, wouldn't they?
a tropical storm reaches the northeast (nyc) about every 20-30 years.
it is not cost effective to replace the overhead power lines underground.
Yeah right, here come Elizabeth Crowley again to solve all of our problems. What BS!
she needs to shut up and stop thinking for the people that would be affected by an increase. i electric bill is high enough!
As usual America is always late with these things *rollseyes* But does the government (state or federal) have enough money to do all this? No.
After Sandy this week, let's rethink having our cables go underground in Queens.
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