I spent a few hours Thursday afternoon with some new friends near Iredell. I met them after receiving an email with a photo of their ‘Big Tree’, a tree ‘J’ had spent the last year trying to save. Much like our experience with LST, ‘J’ has been bullied, appeased, misled, and lied to. He quit work for a full year and made it his mission to stop LST from destroying his land and his ancient trees. He assembled a coalition of almost 150 landowners, testified numerous times in front of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas, hired his own engineers and biologists, and garnered hundreds of pages of documents suggesting conflict of interest and wrongdoing. For his efforts, LST has forced him off of his own land once (along with his consultants and hunters) and as late as Wednesday threatened to do so again if he continued his legal efforts to save his cherished trees. This is LST’s “healthy dose of give and take”.
I arrived at J’s place to find him standing under his big tree while his daughter sat in the tree with tears streaming down her face. We could hear the giant tree grinder not far away as it turned hundreds of years of history into mulch. J quickly wiped his eyes, shook my hand, and tried to make me feel as if I wasn’t intruding on a very personal moment. I saved my emotions for the drive home.
I’ll admit that I’ve grown a bit battle weary at times, but something always seems to slap some sense into me. On Thursday, it was J’s lovely college-age daughter. Even as she watched her own trees being destroyed, she took a moment to tell me, “I really admire what your family is doing.”
Well, I really admire what her father did; he fought it to the bitter end. He invested his time, money, heart and soul - and he lost. I couldn’t quit now if I wanted to.
Most of you probably read this week’s letter in the E-T from Lone Star Transmission. Though I was glad to hear them acknowledge the issues we’ve been discussing, I would like to make a couple of clarifications. But first, since they signed the letter “Lone Star Transmission,” I would like to tell you who it was really from.
The president and founder of LST is Mike Grable, an attorney and former General Counsel to Barry Smitherman, former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas. Mr. Grable was instrumental in the establishment of CREZ (Competitive Renewable Energy Zones) as evidenced by Docket No. 33672 ‘Commission Staffs Petition for the Designation of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones’. CREZ is what made this wreck possible. Ironically, the study quoted in this document was done by GE – the country’s largest producer of wind turbines. Even GE acknowledges some of the shortfalls of wind power in this document.
Mr. Grable held this position from 2008-2010; the two years prior he was an ‘Advisor’ to Chairman Smitherman. After leaving the employ of Chairman Smitherman, Mr. Grable founded LST. He quickly went to NextEra Energy in Florida to get funding, access to stimulus funds, political clout, and a seat on President Obama’s knee. It’s not much of a stretch to see how a company that had never built a transmission line in the state of Texas might get such an enormous contract with a guaranteed rate of return. In case you were wondering, Chairman Smitherman still headed the PUCT. However, in July 2011, Governor Perry promoted Smitherman to Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas for his fine work at the PUCT.
As LST pointed out, I’m sure some really good Texans work for their company. I’ve even met a couple of them. However, it seems with all those millions of your dollars, they can’t afford a receptionist to answer the phone. I have called dozens of times and have never received anything other than an answering machine.
To my knowledge, LST’s letter was the first public acknowledgement that other sources of energy would be serviced by these high voltage transmission lines. Though the announcement was politically expedient, this project was sold to Texas ratepayers as a strictly ‘green energy’ project. It was pushed through the Texas Legislature and received stimulus funding boasting the same rhetoric. I’ve not yet had time to read the entire bill, but certainly its intent has been misrepresented.
While the tax benefits touted by LST may seem true on the surface, they will likely be offset when every affected landowner appeals his property taxes - based on diminished land values and property rights along the corridor. However, a friend of mine (also affected by LST) recently raised a question that begs an answer. For those landowners who have a lien against their property (most of them), what happens when the reduction in property value falls below the balance of the lien. In an already depressed real estate market, will LST guarantee that their “fair compensation” will close the gap between the lands current appraisal and its diminished value with the powerline easement? When the lien holder calls their note based on insufficient collateral - will LST be there?
LST informed us again this week, through our attorneys, that they would not consider moving their route and not honor their original promise to us. They have no intention of compromising.
Well, Mr. Grable, neither do we.
Jon Koonsman is a local builder and rancher and 6th generation Erath County resident. He is married with two sons and resides on his family's ranch near Duffau. He is also a member of the Empire-Tribune's community columnists. His column appears on the second and fourth Sunday of every month. He can be reached at jonkoonsman@yahoo.com.
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