Subject: (Loew) Robert Redford Fights Power Lines (fwd)
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 103611 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
I received the following message (below) from Brenda on Friday and
(initially) I decided not to forward for the reason I will soon
explain..... However, Brenda asked me to reconsider ... and to provide
(for you) the same reason I had given her for not sending it out in the
first place....
This is what I initially told Brenda about her message:
Notice that the "health" issue is not being raised.... That leaves it as
just another NIMBY case..... The wealthy can (and do) fight these cases
(to keep the "ugly" lines off their property), but that is no help for the
"less wealthy" who must live (or have their children live) alongside the
lines.... It is the latter cases that interest me!! I have seen the
power companies string much bigger lines right through the neighborhoods
and the play grounds of the inner city children..... No Robert Redford
there ... to raise objections......
*******************************************
.......To which I now add -- if this subject continues to be treated as a
NIMBY issue (ignoring the health issue), then we deserve the indifferent
treatment we are likely to receive from the courts.....
>From personal professional experience, I can assure you:
the courts (and the power companies) have been looking at these NIMBY cases
since the dawn of the "electricity age," and they have long since created
the "common law" (also called "case law") which **almost always** goes in
favor of the power companies..... The arguments on behalf of "eminent
domain" (What the State needs, the State gets.) ... are simply too
overpowering (pun!!).....
What I have been trying to teach on this net is that the EMF/HEALTH issue
raises (can raise) entirely NEW issues -- mainly, the issue of public
health and safety (within the EMF hazard dimensions **outside** of those
corridors) against the demands of the power companies for the corridors
they seek to condemn....
It is a HUGE new point of law!! The evidence is that the power companies
have been seeking narrow corridors (cost them less $$$$$$) not sufficient
to protect the health of the people who live "legally" outside those
corridors, but within range of the EMF hazard dimensions.....!!! Clearly,
the power companies don't mind at all passing the risk to the public ...
as long as they can get away with it..... They get away with it NOW --
VERY MUCH with the help of governments (national, state and local) who
don't want to face-up to the consequences..... And, who are being
fortified by a "science" community that lacks the integrity (guts) to
speak openly about what their fears of EMF bioeffects really are......
[ALWAYS they take refuge in the 'easy' judgment that "there is no
CONCLUSIVE PROOF"...... Which, of course, is a cop-out when the REAL
judgment should be: what is the evidence **suggesting** ... or even
STRONGLY suggesting..... THAT test, by the way is the one the courts
would rely on in most states of this country..... What is the weight of
the evidence telling us????.....]
IF, we were pursuing more such "health-issue" cases in the courts -- AND
bringing the science evidence into the courts -- the public education
process would speed up dramatically....
Cheerio.... (Brenda's message below is interesting....)
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org................
...It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness...
.................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS...............
.......DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST??????..........
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 14:37:48 -0400
From: Brenda Loew
To: "Roy L. Beavers"
Subject: Robert Redford Fights Power Lines
Roy: Has this recent news story been posted to the list. Are there any list
members from Santa Fe? Does anyone know of Attorney Steadman? -- Brenda
Loew
Web posted Wednesday, May 12, 1999
5:16 a.m. CT
State Supreme Court hears Redford power-line appeal
The Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Lawyers for film star Robert Redford and other
landowners asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to bar a proposed power line
across property northwest of Santa Fe.
Moss Farms Inc. and Hacienda del Cerezo Ltd. want the court to overturn an
October decision by the now-defunct Public Utility Commission that would
permit Public Service Company of New Mexico to build a 10-mile transmission
line over private, state and Indian land.
Moss Farms, partly owned by Redford, and Hacienda del Cerezo, a 336-acre
guest ranch nearby, filed the appeal late last year.
The companies contend the PUC improperly adopted the recommendation of a
hearing examiner who allowed erroneous and unsubstantiated information. The
PUC's duties since have been taken over by the new Public Regulation
Commission.
The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday from the landowners and PNM.
In a 1997 PUC hearing, the power company was asked to offer alternative
locations for the 115-kilovolt line after residents contended the line is
unneeded.
The utility said the $5.7 million transmission line would meet power needs
for the next 30 years. A proposed substation on Tesuque Pueblo land would
convert power from the elevated high-power line into 12,500-volt
distribution wires.
The utility claimed building the Tesuque line was more feasible than burying
a line along a Santa Fe road as opponents proposed. PNM considered building
a small power plant near Santa Fe's Fort Marcy but decided that would cause
more pollution, company spokeswoman Julie Grey said.
The PUC agreed with PNM on the Tesuque project because of possible problems
of obtaining easements and rights-of-way elsewhere, said Stacey Goodwin, a
lawyer for the Public Regulation Commission.
But Margaret Steadman, attorney for Moss Farms and Hacienda, said the
hearing examiner did not require PNM to prove the Tesuque project was more
feasible, violating commission rules.
Steadman said PNM officials incorrectly stated Santa Fe County would not
allow PNM to use a public right-of-way and that the county would not require
a permit to build the Tesuque line.
According to court documents, the county sought to intervene, intending to
testify it would require a permit from PNM, and the PUC disallowed it.
The company, however, told the Supreme Court on Monday that it weighed all
the alternatives, Grey said.
Steadman said if the court does not reverse the decision, Moss Farms and
Hacienda del Cerezo want it at least to let the county make its case.
Grey said PNM will delay construction until "we have some resolution in this
whole matter."
----------
>From: "Roy L. Beavers"
>To: emfguru
>Subject: (Joanne) Fighting power lines (fwd)
>Date: Wed, May 5, 1999, 10:03 PM
>
>
>......The problem is, Joanne, no-one worries about the power line
>problem until it is in **his/her** yard!!! And less than ten percent
>of the population are ever forced to have that experience.....
>
>Notice how many more people are responding to the cell-phone-antenna
>problem!?! Obviously, more people are being touched by that experience!!!
>(And, incidentally, a "wealthier, better educated" part of the society --
>the so-called "soccer moms.")
>
>But these "soccer moms" don't have a good record of helping to "fight"
>the power line issue...... (Usually, they have never experienced it.....
>The power lines tend to get "dumped" into the poorer neighborhoods, or
>the rural areas -- as in Joanne's example below.....)
>
>If the day ever comes when we all learn to see these "Blue World" problems
>through the eyes of the "person" who is forced to confront the problem ...
>if we all will try to "live in his/her shoes" (to try another metaphor)
>... then perhaps society will do a better job of dealing with these
>issues.....
>
>Cheerio.....
>
>Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
>rbeavers@llion.org................
>...It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness...
>.................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS...............
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 21:34:08 EDT
>From: JCMPelican@aol.com
>To: "Roy L. Beavers"
>Subject: Fighting
>
>Roy - You are so right!! Bud and I have been "fighting EMR" many years
>before we even knew about the terms EMF and EMR.
>
>We lived in the home we built by ourselves with some help from friends and
>family for 13 years when all of a sudden we were told by neighbors that the
>United Power Association and the Rural Cooperative Power Association (here in
>Minnesota) were coming down our street which was then named "Sandy Hill Road"
>with a high voltage transmission line. That was some time in 1969 or spring
>of 1970.
>
>We met with our neighbors down the road and all agreed to drive our cars over
>the holes after each one was dug. Previously unknown to us, some of these
>neighbors had been battling with our City (near Minneapolis) and had learned
>the City didn't want the transmission lines (we have two hvtls) routed down
>the trunk highway less than 1/3 mile north of us because they (the City) was
>concerned about the lines going by the City golf course. The neighbors had
>also learned there had been discussion about keeping the lines away from the
>elementary school about two blocks from our home. At the time, people were
>aware of complaints by farmers regarding health concerns. We were all
>frightened and blocked progress until the UPA and the RCPA served us with
>Summons and Complaints stating we would each be charged $1,000 per day for
>delaying installation. We continued (and continue) to be frightened.....
>
>Insofar as the assessments against us, we were lucky. I happened to work for
>a local attorney who "got us off." However, we were very disturbed about our
>inability to fight such powerful entities.
>
>As you know, we worry a whole lot more now...... We know EMF's have harmed
>us and our families. We know we LOST and BIG MONEY and THEIR POWER WON!!!!
>We KNOW our own City SOLD us down the tubes when THEY KNEW there was more
>than a likelihood of adverse health effects!!!
>
>We are, however, determined to keep "getting the word out" in whatever way we
>can and as I have said before, we are most appreciative of the work you are
>doing to help the cause. Take care - Joanne
>
>
>
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html