One of these days they will be smart enough to put the power lines underground so the weight of the ice and falling branches don’t break the lines!
I'm with you, but the cost of underground installation, plus the enormous cost and time expended to service buried lines, makes wholesale buried utilities very unattractive to the utility users, meaning mostly us taxpayers. Buried lines makes for a much more attractive landscape, and they offer superior resistance to the elements. But, if you have a large surface area of concrete (or asphalt) paving above the buried lines, and you lose continuity below that paving, ya gotta tear up a lot of paving to even find the 'trouble' (in many cases), much less effect repair. And then ya gotta repair the paving, which ALWAYS looks like a patch. If the paved area is an actual traffic thoroughfare, then you gotta deal with re-routing traffic for some amount of time, which ALWAYS draws criticism and ill-will from the public. And, if utility users are without service for more than a few hours, there are enormous consequences, not the least of which is life safety.
If the utility providers weren't profit oriented (and who in business isn't?), they could easily bury the cross-country high-tension lines, making the open countryside MUCH more pleasing to the eye. On a few unusual (not rare, but unusual) occasions, I have seen large areas of countryside without any evidence of mankind. No power lines, no oil wells, no buildings, no fences, no windmills, no wind generators, no roads - just grasses, trees, bushes, hills, valleys, waterways, mountains, and wildlife. So, so beautiful.
I'm not a card-carrying liberal environmentalist, but I wish we could get more folks to respect the environment, and at least use a garbage can - stop throwin' s--- out the car window.
Everybody have a great weekend.
