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[deleted] t1_j16z7ax wrote

I was just saying this to a buddy of mine today!

I get burying lines would be a massive undertaking but it beats millions spent year after year on repairs, not having dependable power in freezing temperatures, not to mention just adding to scenic beauty.

If a governor ran on the platform of burying nh lines I'd vote for him/her.

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BodaciousGuy t1_j18b3g8 wrote

Maybe the utilities like the millions of dollars in government (people’s) money to continuously repair and restore above ground power lines? Maybe they significantly underbid above ground power lines knowing they’re going to get repair work, maybe they significantly over bid underground work knowing they won’t have the same repair work? Maybe they’re quietly campaigning against burying lines? Just some thoughts.

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b3_yourself OP t1_j1b4cvs wrote

I think in nh especially, it’s just hard to dig because there’s very little soil, so it makes it harder to dig too

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Different_Ad7655 t1_j179tu7 wrote

Well unfortunately it's far beyond the governor and it's an undertaking that should have happened way back in the 50s and the 60s. But business like it just the way it was and it was always such enormous resistance and misinformation. Germany after World War II mile by mile, kilometer by kilometer slowly buried everything. The countryside looks beautiful and is none of this crazy bullshit. Nowadays it would involve a surcharge into tax and you can imagine how people would go fucking nuts with that even though this would be something that would truly benefit all of us

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[deleted] t1_j18sfzt wrote

I did some reading on it this morning. It seems the biggest resistance is from the utility companies themselves as you said. The cost and pain of putting underground wires isn't something they are interested in.

But it's definitely possible. It'd cost tens of billions and take decades but it's possible.

I mean we just passed a 3 trillion dollar infrastructure package. Nh can't get any of that to go towards improving our energy grid? It's not a luxury of just wanting lights for a few days in winter, as everyone here knows it's the fact it's freezing temperatures as well. Then pipes freeze and consumers pay 10s of thousands to fix. This is actually a good use of taxes people could get behind in my opinion

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Different_Ad7655 t1_j19hr52 wrote

And there's so much propaganda and misinformation about this and all propagated by the lobbies of the power industry and public service of New Hampshire, for years and years. Whenever it would be brought forth Just for consideration it would be shot down. This is the difference between a well-run government with broader powers and a very conservative GOP government that lets everything be determined by the corporate interest and the market. It would have cost money to have done it and it would have been an infrastructure investment such as the interstates, Water and Sewer and any of those larger projects that take brighter Minds and commitment to do the right thing. But overhead power lines function sort of and Aesthetics never played much of a role in the US. Of course the larger argument would be to have uninterrupted service and possibly not the need of certain types of linements. Maybe there wasn't Union resistance as well I don't know. But it was never thought thoroughly through with any sort of push for the greater common weal.

We all become inured of the ugliness all around. But when you go to a nice place especially South of the Border in Massachusetts where there has been more commitment in villages and in urban spaces to reduce or put completely below the tangle, you might not at first notice what makes the place attractive. But then you stop and look and you realize they no lines no telephone poles no ugliness. But it's all about money and it's all about cost at this point and everything is thrust back to the consumer on the local level. Goffstown six or seven years ago we did their Main Street which is probably traveled 114 cuz there was no bypass and took such Flack over the Pedestrian bump out and the slowing of the traffic through the village. In America it's all about moving the audible deal first everybody else is fucked, who lives on the side. It's only an engineering consideration rarely rarely no never aesthetic and again. But even here with a spent all that energy and money private and Federal they could not get enough money to take the electric poles down. Still in ice or on the Main Street even though the rest of the pedestrian build-outs and Landscaping is more pleasant but still marred by Third World Electric connections

I travel a lot, spend a fair amount of time in Europe even in Eastern Europe where I still have some distant family and I'm amazed even in for poorer Poland most of the lines are buried. Go figure. Just a matter what you want to spend your money on and what is the most important thing. How you spend your dollars speaks volumes to the values especially the cultural values you share. There is no free lunch

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Queasy_Turnover t1_j1acebf wrote

>We all become inured of the ugliness all around. But when you go to a nice place especially South of the Border in Massachusetts where there has been more commitment in villages and in urban spaces to reduce or put completely below the tangle, you might not at first notice what makes the place attractive.

This is so true. Bought a house in a southwestern NH neighborhood a few months ago and didn't even realize until a few weeks ago that there were no power lines around. I'm so used to seeing them that they usually just blend in with everything else but now that I've noticed my neighborhood doesn't have them, I really appreciate how much better it looks. Not to mention not having to worry about branches taking out any lines going directly to my house. Still didn't help with last weekend's storm though as we lost power for 12ish hours due to other lines in town getting taken out.

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