Government set to 'ease path' for new power line

by KEVIN TAYLOR

The Green Party is warning that a surprise law change will make it easier to drive through Transpower's planned new high-voltage power line from the Waikato to Auckland.

The State-owned national grid operator plans a $500 million power line from Whakamaru to Otahuhu, but the project has already drawn angry protests from landowners whose properties it would cross.

The Government will today table in Parliament changes to the Electricity Act as part of wider changes to the Resource Management Act.

The changes would require road and rail authorities to set reasonable conditions relating to construction and maintenance of high-voltage power lines crossing roads and track.

A spokesman for Energy Minister Pete Hodgson said currently such authorities could be silent when a power-line builder wanted to place high-voltage lines under or over a road or railway.

But the spokesman said the change was not a "fast-track" of any project because it would only apply once resource consent was obtained.

"It does not do anything in terms of easing passage through the RMA," he said.

But Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the changes would make it easier for the Waikato-Auckland lines project to cross roads without councils having much power to set conditions.

"This is part of a much bigger agenda - much of which is going to be revealed when the RMA bill comes in - to smooth the path for these giant transmission lines."

She said the lines would have a huge impact on property values and quality of life in the Waikato. The line will be 400Kv. The largest lines at the moment are 220Kv.

The proposed towers are 70m tall - 24 storeys - about three times the height of present towers.

Last month, Parliament's environmental watchdog asked the Electricity Commission to consider the wider environmental costs of the planned lines.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, wrote to the commission urging it to widen its test to decide whether the line can go ahead, from "net market benefit" to one considering wider public costs and benefits.

He said the narrow market test was inconsistent with Government policy that electricity decisions should promote "efficient investment in transmission or transmission alternatives".

This is the first time the new Electricity Commission has had to approve a proposed power line. It has received 21 submissions on its test and will decide its final wording this month.

But Transpower also needs consent from the councils affected by the new line, and it has run into widespread opposition to the plan throughout the Waikato, with many landowners vowing not to negotiate.

Meanwhile, Forest and Bird conservation manager Kevin Hackwell said it was concerned the Government might introduce new fast-track powers today under the RMA bill which would allow it make its own decisions on projects.

"It is clear that the Government is considering wider powers to make decisions at a national level, using a modified call-in process," he said.

A new call-in process would enable the Government to fast-track major projects like hydro schemes, coalmines and prisons.

He said the powers could also be used to enable the Government to fast-track designations for the power-line project.

"If the Auckland transmission system gets fast-tracked, local landowners ... could lose their rights to appeal designations over their land to the Environment Court," Mr Hackwell said.