This past week I was at a meeting in Tulsa, Okla., for KAMO Power and their supply partner Associated Electric.
KAMO Power was building a large transmission line from Chouteau, Okla., to the Joplin, Mo., area – that’s a rough map when sharing power from a new gas plant outside of Chouteau. These interconnections are important for dependable power up there or down here – all these politicians would have you believe they are highways and anyone should use them. They aren’t. They ensure the integrity of their users and cost as much as a paved road, but coops are concerned that you have dependable electricity at reasonable prices.
So building the line was a regular part of the engineers’ job to find the route, survey it and acquire the right-of-way. Sounds simple enough. I’d say it was 100 miles long using a cowboy’s measurement to make the two points connect. It was a critical connection to keep the lights on. Tornados and many other things can rip through towns and leave folks in the dark without them.
Somewhere on this line where they planned to build the transmission, someone found orange and black colored beetles. They were in the soil under where the wires would be suspended and in the path of the construction trucks and heavy equipment. The beetle was about 2 inches long and has a scientific name. I had seen them in the woods cutting some timber years ago. A colorful bugger but it’s also on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s endangered species list.
I can recall an endangered species discovery in Tennessee when they wanted to build a dam – a snail darter fish. They were said to be the only ones left in the world. I am certain that the power company officials involved shut their eyes at the first notification when they were told they couldn’t build a power line over the endangered species’ habitat.
To prove the snail dart fish was there, a federal official used a dead chicken in a trap to capture some. None came. I guess that showed how endangered they were. It was the only funny event in this entire matter. But it also meant the entire project was now under scrutiny for any more sign of the beetles. They had awoken a sleeping lion. What else lurked in the 60-foot wide strip of land reaching across northeast Oklahoma?
The two power companies had to deal with 67 federal, state and county agencies to resolve this matter. Can you imagine the amount of paperwork and reports they filled out to complete the approval of this line? They kept track, of course, of all the expenses and the beetle project cost them $2 million.
Now isn’t it time we look at all this government oversight? People don’t even want to be in business today. Red tape and bureaucracy need to be reined in. How many people do you the taxpayer pay for in this long chain of oversight? Oh, it’s the cost of doing business they say. But we can’t go on paying for all this “big brother” business. The coop members in northeast Oklahoma will have to foot the bill over time.
God bless you and America,
Western novelist Dusty Richards and his wife Pat live on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. For more information about his books you can email Dusty by visiting ozarksfn.com and clicking on ‘Contact Us’ or call 1-866-532-1960.
