Times Editorial : A bad deal
Posted on Sunday, February 25, 2007
Forgive us.
All our lives we’ve been operating under the clearly mistaken assumption that legislatures, those laboratories of democracy in action, have the people’s best interests at heart. Courts are where lengthy debates interpreting the meaning of laws break out; and governors and presidents are kept around to administer the people’s laws and help put them into practice. But legislatures — that’s where the beliefs and convictions of a whole people are aired, and where honest-to-goodness progress actually takes place. At least that’s where it’s supposed to take place. Last Tuesday, progress took a decidedly backwards step. Incredibly we have our state’s House of Representatives (and more specifically, 70 members of that august body ) to thank for the passage of the first truly lousy bill of the 86 th General Assembly. Introduced by State Rep. David Dunn, D-Forrest City, House Bill 1367 appears to accomplish little in the way of benefiting the people of Arkansas. Public utility companies, however, have much to gain with the passage of this particular bill. Should it become law, the bill would do away with requirements that public utilities’ proposed work in existing public rights of way become the subject of a public hearing process before the Arkansas Public Service Commission. Let’s call it the SWEPCO Gag Rule. In English ? Utility companies across Arkansas operate through the good graces of the public, which grants the utilities the right to use public rights of way for their utility lines. The companies make money. Citizens get electricity, gas, cable, telephone service. Everyone’s happy. But let’s say a utility wants to make a big change to the facilities (poles, electrical lines, etc. ) it has in those public rights of way. Today, such changes merit a public discussion. If House Bill 1367 becomes law, that public discussion will be stifled, trading in the public interest for the benefit of these utility companies. Let’s cite a local example: A few months back, Southwestern Electric Power Co., also known as SWEPCO, announced plans to install tall poles and more significant power lines in a public right of way that cuts across Dickson Street in Fayetteville. It’s the same Dickson Street city government has spent millions to improve and beautify. Quickly, local protests arose as people argued the utility’s plans would further damage the look and feel of Dickson Street. It’s important to say that the Dickson Street project is already going through the public hearing process and, apparently, the proposed House Bill 1367 would not change that. But, if SWEPCO had proposed the change after the bill became law, Fayetteville’s recourse would be, well, nothing. Zippo. The rationale of the bill seems to be that such matters are not Fayetteville residents’ business. At this junction, we’d like to express our appreciation to those from our neck of the woods who voted against this fairly ridiculous legislation. Sadly, the list isn’t very long. State Reps. Jim House (R-Elkins ), Lindsley Smith (D-Fayetteville ) and Jon Woods (R-Springdale ) are among the 20 public officials who opposed this legislation. Apparently they join the people of Fayetteville in cherishing the people’s right to speak on the record with regard to projects that have an impact on the community. State Reps. Eric Harris (R-Springdale ) and Mark Martin (R-Prairie Grove ) chose to support House Bill 1367. State Rep. Marilyn Edwards (DFayetteville ) did not vote. We’re not saying utilities don’t need to undertake important projects in the public rights of way. They do. But what’s objectionable here is that the utilities seem to believe Arkansans should just shut up and get out of their way. In retrospect, Fayetteville is fortunate a public hearing before the commission (scheduled for April 5 in Little Rock ) is even taking place considering SWEPCO’s efforts to avoid such a fate last July. At the time, the utility was arguing that its plans for downtown Fayetteville did not require a public hearing since doing so would be expensive and time consuming. Yeah, we’re real sorry about that. But trying to bully such projects through without regard to public opinion is an underhanded way for utilities to treat their customers. House Bill 1367 is a stain on the cause of government actually listening its constituents. We hope it does not become law.
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