THE UNDERGROUND INSTALLATION OF UTILITIES 369 



prevail in the Nation and the various communities rather than inter- 

 pose their own. And if, in this country, the people in any particular 

 area think that overhead transmission lines are unsightly and that 

 we should make a strenuous effort to eliminate them from the land- 

 scape, I think this becomes the challenge for the industry and for the 

 people associated with the industry. 



Nevertheless, I think we might get this problem in perspective. 

 For practical purposes, I think the distribution problem is well in 

 hand. The transfer of small amounts of energy for short distances 

 at low voltages presents no great technological or economic problem 

 at the present time. The problem of heavy transmission lines is dif- 

 ferent. I am talking about transferring large amounts of power long 

 distances at high voltage. And this presents very serious problems. 



Electric transmission towers are neutral in their effect on the 

 environment. They produce no contamination and they have no 

 cumulative byproducts. Sitting here and listening to the previous 

 panelists discussing the results of surface coal mining and the prob- 

 lems of contamination which result, I realize that this is a high 

 priority problem which, in comparison with the transmission line 

 problem, will be a low-cost problem to resolve. The problem of 

 electric transmission is the other way around. The towers ultimately 

 could be removed. They do not harm the landscape. They hurt no 

 one while they are erected and in operation. I think they present 

 a relatively low priority problem and yet one that requires truly 

 enormous amounts of money to solve. You could solve almost all of 

 the problems, all the other problems of natural beauty which have 

 been discussed in this whole conference for only probably a part of 

 the money that is involved in undergrounding the electric transmis- 

 sion systems in this country. 



The problem arises, if I may speak about the technology (I am a 

 lawyer and I say this on what we call information and belief), that 

 when you transfer power on a metallic conductor, you generate heat. 

 In the outside atmosphere, this is no problem, and at low voltage for 

 short distances, this is not much of a problem. But when you take 

 that line and try to put it underground and bury it which is the 

 ordinary desire of people who don't like to look at the transmission 

 towers then you have a problem of dissipating your heat under- 

 ground. This problem is aggravated by the fact that you are deal- 

 ing with a very dangerous voltage so that you have to insulate your 

 conductor. 



