Let me start with this: Overhead power lines are not only ugly, they’re vulnerable to collapse in storms. Ten years ago, after Hurricane Sandy caused power outages across a large swath of the country, a question appeared in this space: Why not bury power lines? Why not put them out of harm’s way and out of sight?
Take a minute to look at it and the system seems archaic — heavy black wires strung from pole to pole along miles and miles of roads, in rural and suburban areas as well as city neighborhoods.
But the response to the question was what you’d expect: In Maryland at the time, BGE estimated that burying power lines would cost $1 million a mile. The conversation pretty much ended there.
