Big post tomorrow

Just a quick heads up. Last year I wrote a long article about Ohio Edison’s clear cutting of trees throughout their transmissions corridor, from the Ohio River to Cleveland. I think it ended up well, but I just haven’t found the time to try to get it published. Rather than stick it in a drawer, I’m going to post it tomorrow. If you could take a moment to forward it to a friend and spread it around, I’d appreciate it. Thanks! Here’s a tiny preview to whet the outrage:

The Blackout

It all started on one hot August day in 2003, when the largest blackout in North American history hit cities from the Midwest to Manhattan causing billions of dollars in losses. A scathing report that fall laid the blame squarely at the feet of Ohio Edison’s parent, FirstEnergy, for failing to detect and control the system failures that cascaded and escalated into the massive outage. In the report, three major transmission lines belonging to FirstEnergy failed because they sank into trees for want of “simple tree-trimming.”

FirstEnergy heard the message loud and clear. Two weeks later, at a December 4 investor meeting, president for energy delivery Charles Jones announced the company was adopting a zero-tolerance policy for tree-caused transmission line failures.

On July 29, 2004, FirstEnergy agreed to pay $89.9 million to settle shareholder lawsuits related to the blackouts. Up to this time, the company had maintained a practice regarding vegetation in easements under transmission lines promoting trimming on a five-year cycle. Since the blackout, Ohio Edison has clear cut over 175,000 trees across the state of Ohio.

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