As you all know, the months of April and May were dedicated to getting public support from all residents along SR 54 to prevent Progress Energy from putting up High Tension Powerlines throughout our community. Volunteers from Ballantrae and our neighboring communities went door to door getting signatures on a petition, we organized a neighborhood meeting with Progress Energy to voice our concerns, and our community leaders voiced their objections to Progress Energy’s plans on the T.V. and in the local newspapers.
I am pleased to say that our efforts have paid off. The following is a blurb from a letter I received from Gail Simpson, Manager of Public Policy and Constituent Relations for Progress Energy on Friday, May 23, 2008.
“our studies have concluded that at this time we will not need to build new transmission in Pasco. We have sufficient capacity on the existing lines in the county for this specific project which will bring new load from a proposed power plant in Levy County to the customers throughout our system.”
As you can see, we have won. Progress Energy is not coming along SR 54, they are not coming along the Suncoast, in fact, they are not building new power lines in Pasco County at all for this project. To check these results for yourself, you can visit the following website:
www.progress-energy.com/energyplanning
1) Click on the project maps link on the left side of the screen
2) Note that there are no longer any power line corridors through Pasco County for this expansion project.
3) You can view the corridors in neighboring counties by clicking on the link for the specific aerial map.
Thank you all for your support. We would not have been successful without all of your help.
Rebecca Gerhardstein, PhD
No Power Lines Committee
