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“This is an absolute shame for a supposedly independent agency,” write contributors

Dear Editor; Last year the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) was caught conducting espionage against landowners participating in hearings for a proposed 500 kV power line between Edmonton and Calgary. To his credit, William A. Tilleman, the AEUB’s chairman, ruled the whole process around the so-called need to reinforce the transmission system between Edmonton and Calgary was void.

Dear Editor;

Last year the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) was caught conducting espionage against landowners participating in hearings for a proposed 500 kV power line between Edmonton and Calgary. To his credit, William A. Tilleman, the AEUB’s chairman, ruled the whole process around the so-called need to reinforce the transmission system between Edmonton and Calgary was void.

In effect, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) was told to start the process over from the beginning. This was to involve an impartial, province-wide examination of all aspects of the electrical system. The AESO’s new round of public meetings clearly demonstrates the AESO has ignored this order.

The AESO’s new study area does not cover the width of the province. Rather than hold meetings across Alberta, the AESO’s study area closely parallels the contentious route in the Highway # 2 corridor it championed on behalf of AltaLink during the last abortive process.

The AESO is already putting Albertans into a very narrow funnel which too obviously leads to placing an undue burden on those landowners who have unfairly carried the burden of major north south transmission lines for decades.

These AESO public meetings are simply an effort to soften public opinion and give the illusion of consultation while really pushing an agenda that is biased against landowners and the public of Alberta. We need an impartial and unbiased examination of the electrical system in Alberta and it is now painfully obvious that the AESO is not capable of conducting such a process.

The AESO is not bringing Albertans an independent analysis of the electrical transmission system. They are simply relying on the electrical transmission companies

(TFOs) to provide them with information, and this is a clear conflict of interest. Many of the AESO’s proposals are in fact worse for landowners in the west than the original proposal and appear to me to be doing the bidding of the TFO. This is an absolute shame for a supposedly independent agency.

Anthony Heinrich and

Ken Larsen

Alsike, Alta.