Power lines coming to national parks?

Federal regulators propose new corridors for transmission lines

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Apple trees have been planted, wood fences restored and power lines buried in recent years to transform the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg to the way it looked when Union and Confederate forces clashed on farmers’ fields in 1863.

But preservationists now worry that the national military park in Pennsylvania’s picturesque fruit belt soon may be in the shadow of high-powered transmission lines.


It is not just Gettysburg that worries them as a result of a 2005 law that gave federal regulators new authority over where power lines are built. They fear the law could place hundreds of national and state parks and other protected sites in the Northeast and Southwest in or near the path of massive power lines.

“They’re not little modest poles that you wouldn’t notice,” said Joy Oakes, senior regional director at the National Parks Conservation Association.

The law was enacted in response to power companies’ complaints that local and state authorities, which historically have decided where power lines go, were reluctant to approve them – often because of residents’ opposition. The stalemate, according to the companies, contributed to blackouts such as the one in 2003 that swept from Ohio to New York City.

AP