ABSTRACT
If Earth Day, 1970, symbolized the emergence of an environmental revolution in this country, it also marked the beginning of a most difficult period for power companies planning major expansion projects. Public opposition to these projects has become a fact of life, as illustrated by such cases as the Seabrook Nuclear Plant in New Hampshire, the Tellico Dam Project in Tennessee, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant in California, and the Kaiparowits Project in Utah. Nor have high voltage transmission lines escaped political resistance. Consider, for example, the controversies that not long ago surrounded 765 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines in New York and Ohio, or the 500 kV lines proposed by the Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest. But perhaps the most dramatic illustration is to be found in the Coal Creek Project in the upper midwest. Almost from the time the project was first announced, a section of associated transmission line became the subject of bitter dispute in Minnesota, ultimately resulting in violence and sabotage.
