Attack Hydro Engineers

Blackberry Addicts attacks the engineers retired from Manitoba Hydro. Not much different that the Tories attacking the professional civil service in regards to the census, don't you think?

Some of what was said:

As readers digest the group letter published in today's Free Press, consider what Bipoles actually look like. They're huge swaths of destruction. They are inconsistent with the development of long-term economic opportunities like ecotourism and unlike an all weather road, it's impossible to transport milk via a high voltage transmission line.

Top further discredit the engineers, Blackberry Addicts links them to the Conservatives.

Hugh McFadyen and his Tories haven't met an engineer they haven't wanted to hug. If you believe, however, that there's more to good public policy than an engineer's formula book, take a serious look at what the NDP, First Nations like Poplar River, and local environmental groups are actually trying to do on the East Side. And if you ever wonder what happens when governments build things in communities where people don't want them, take a tour of Winnipeg's new roundabouts.

Wow.

Well, I have looked at the website against east side option and what the engineers say.

It seems to me that the idea that a road could run down the same right of way as a hydro line are addressed. Opponents of the east side say couldn't happen. The engineers say it could and that it would make sense.

Why is that a hydro line jeopardizes a UNESCO standing and a road won't? Have they tested their road idea with UNESCO because even their own website says that some roads have resulted in problems for getting approval.

The NDP and their supporters attacking engineers for addressing their criticisms point by point is not very convincing.

If the east side is to be protected for UNESCO, resistance to roads ought to be part of the plan, right? And if a road is okay, why not a hydro line that runs with it?

The huge costs of running down the west side are lowballed by opponents of the east side. Hydro has recently stated they believe the costs will be much higher. And the waste along the line west line:

The longer line will cause electricity worth about $300 million to be lost in transit, the equivalent of all wind energy generated annually in Manitoba, and equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 40,000 cars.

Yeesh, are we are not likely to see opposition by environmentalists for this?

Perhaps the NDP government should be in opposition to either side of the lake. There will be 400 kilometers of boreal forest on the west side that Bipole III will pass through, the same as the east side.

I can't be the only one who sees more environmental waste from the west side than the east side. However, the thing most Manitobans won't get is the complete financial hit that they will pay and will continue to pay by running down the west side.

I also can't be the only one who doesn't see pithy snarkiness in attacking the engineers as anything but a front for defensive NDP support on an issue that leaves more questions every time it is looked at.