Arkansas certainly jammed a stick into an interstate hornet’s nest by approving “Route 109” for SWEPCO’s high-voltage transmission line that would violate Missouri’s southernmost border (and without first asking permission).
And now the electric folks are asking the Arkansas Public Service Commission for what appears to be a limited rehearing in hopes commissioners will drop the route they originally okayed and reconsider (with modifications) the wholly in-state Route 33 that SWEPCO always preferred.
Golfers might call this a mulligan.
The troubled Route 109 (one of six initially proposed) begins in Benton County and traverses 56 miles, almost half of them in Missouri, before dropping southward to its destination near the Kings River in adjacent Carroll County. But that meant Missouri, which apparently was never even consulted by our state, likely would have to approve such an intrusion. Three bills aimed at blocking this route already have been filed in the Missouri legislature.
Soooo, that leaves the more direct, 49-mile-long Route 33 that would clear a 150-foot-wide swath through the scenic Ozarks of Benton and Carroll counties. Administrative Law Judge Connie Griffin with the Public Service Commission originally determined Route 33 was “unreasonable” because of its unacceptable residential and aesthetic impacts.
In its plea, SWEPCO’s attorney, David Matthews of Rogers, now argues that Griffin’s order approving Route 109 included concerns about the unreasonableness of Route 33 by “intervenors” without finding their issues were either factually accurate or couldn’t be resolved with minor changes.
Matthews also cites a 1994 court case that found the Public Service Commission isn’t to “substitute or superimpose its judgment for that of a utility for the location of proposed new transmission facilities.”
Say what? Then why do we even have a judge or a utility regulatory commission? Should these folks instead simply rubber-stamp a utility’s desires? Why did an administrative law judge take all that time to approve the most acceptable pathway in the first place?
The way I understand (perhaps misunderstand), Matthews’ latest argument on SWEPCO’s behalf goes like this: Hey y’all, let’s just make some modifications to our original proposal that would magically transform the unreasonable Route 33 we’ve always preferred into “reasonable” and get on with spreading our hyper electrified elephant across the Ozarks.
The commission has 30 days to decide whether to grant SWEPCO’s petition. If it’s rejected, the project’s opponents (and there are thousands of voting ratepayers and taxpayers) will have a month to appeal to the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
Pat Costner of Save the Ozarks, one group opposing this line, said her organization plans today to file its own petition for a rehearing that asks the commission to deny SWEPCO’s new plan.
If not, she says, then it’s off to the Court of Appeals. Costner said her organization presented ample evidence at the commission’s original hearing showing there was no proven or pressing need for such a massive transmission line, along with “evidence of numerous factual errors in SWEPCO’s application, and evidence that the application failed to meet a substantial list of legal standards,” which, she adds, the commission supposedly ignored in favor of SWEPCO.“We trust that the Arkansas Court of Appeals has greater respect for facts and law.”
I’ll add my voice to that expression of trust in the court’s integrity. Like currents that hum through transmission lines, thisheated controversy itself continues to generate plenty of its own buzz.
Hiring heroes
I respect what the human-resources director for the city of Bentonville has to say about his community hiring veterans. Ed Wheeler said Bentonville benefits from hiring vets because they show up every day and give 120 percent toward getting their work done.
We can all be certain those traits aren’t by accident. With so many newcomers to the world of work today and the prevalent sense of entitlement, I, too, would be looking first at those who have lived and achieved under the structured expectations of military service. They seem to understand the reality that any potential employer has specific needs to fill in order to grow and prosper. And their needs do not include providing an aspiring applicant with a job.
In a news account, Wheeler also estimated his city today has as many as 20 employees serving in some branch of the National Guard or reserves.
His comments came during the job fair called “Hiring our Heroes” held at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Bentonville.
Thirty-five businesses from across Northwest Arkansas manned booths at the event which links veterans with potential employers who range from Wal-Mart to Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, Embassy Suites, Auto Zone and even Starbucks. About 75 vets showed up to interview. Some were hired.
They also benefited from a seminar beforehand that showed them how to translate skills they gained in the service into the civilian workplace.
I’m certain a lot of Arkansans are as pleased as I am to see the “Hiring Our Heroes” program up and flying.
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial, Pages 15 on 03/18/2014