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Power grid must grow — but who will pay?

There is one thing that just everybody agrees has to be done about the thousands of miles of electrical transmission lines that crisscross the West — build more of them.

The big question is, who pays for them? Another is, who controls them? And finally, how much should it cost to use them?

Utility managers and regulators say those questions need to be answered soon — before demand outstrips the power supply to some of the fastest-growing areas of the nation.

Otherwise, the risk of a blackout like the one that left the East Coast in the dark in 2003 keeps rising.

The Bonneville Power Administration completed a transmission system expansion project in the Seattle area two years ago, reducing the risk of big power failures there.

By WILLIAM MCCALL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Full Story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/249675_powergrid25.html?source=rss

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