First KY Stimulus Project: Bury Power Lines

There are 500,000 people - 1/8 the entire population - without electricity in Kentucky this morning. Temperature is 25 degrees, dropping into the teens by Friday night.

They are without power - the light switch kind and the political kind - for one reason, and it's NOT the weather.

They are without power because 90 percent of the electric lines in this state are swinging naked 20 feet in the air, taunting giant tree branches that take every opportunity to rip those smart-ass suckers right out of the grid.

I've lived in this state more than 40 years, and every year it's the same refrain: Bury the power lines! It's too expensive! All you silly people who expect the lights to go on in return for the outrageous utility bills you pay: FUCK YOU!

Ice storm, heavy snow, tornado, hurricane remnants, suicide squirrels - overhead power lines are begging for catastrophe, and catastrophe is what we've got.

No, I don't think the taxpayers should cover the cost of something Kentucky Utilities, Louisville Gas and Electric, and all the rural cooperatives should have paid to do decades ago.

I think Kentucky should get stimulus money to bury all the lines, do it ourselves, then force the companies to reimburse us.

Every dime. Plus 10 percent interest per year for the 60 years they've been putting off burying the lines themselves.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic.