Nick Jansen – 9/25/08

This page was last updated on September 25, 2008.

Put utility lines in the ground; Nick Jansen; Beaver County Times; September 25, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“Isn’t it time that utilities put their cables underground? There are initial costs, but in the long run it saves money.”

[RWC] You’ll note Mr. Jansen doesn’t provide any data or cite any sources to support his assertion.

I suspect Mr. Jansen believes underground utilities will result in fewer outages. I assumed the same thing until I lived in an area with underground utilities. Though the landscape looked nicer, there were no fewer outages. Part of that is because high voltage electrical lines can’t be run underground and those lines remain vulnerable.

“Two parties are working against this. The first ones are the boards of directors of the utilities, which are promising huge end-of-year bonuses to the CEOs. They, in turn, are frantically pressing to lower the expenses to maximize the monthly figures, thus no money for underground cables.”

[RWC] This is just BS.

“The second parties are the respective unions. Underground cables eliminate frequent emergency repair with their lucrative overtime.

“The utilities forget to calculate the enormous costs of repair and the missed income. The reason is the short-term profit policy.

“It is debatable whether the utilities are taking the human factor into account. One example is elder folks without a cell phone living in rural areas and depending upon the telephone for emergencies. The rural areas are always last on the list for the repairs because the population density isn’t big. This means it can be four or five days before the service is restored. By that time, it may be too late.

“Cities should be in the front line because the breakeven point for cost of change and higher profits is there in shortest period of time. The pressure for the changeover should be applied by them. The utilities will not do it on their own free will. They only will say that it costs so much.”

[RWC] Once again Mr. Jansen doesn’t provide any data or cite any sources to support his assertions.