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Posted: Feb. 22, 2010

4 communities fighting clear-cutting by utility

BY BILL LAITNER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


After a year of hearing residents complain, four communities in southeast Michigan took action this month against a statewide utility that is clear-cutting trees and shrubs near its high-voltage lines, and leaving behind unsightly tree stumps.

But Novi-based ITC Holdings said the clearing is necessary to comply with federal mandates passed after the nation's big blackout of 2003 that require a zero tolerance of outages and threaten fines of up to $1 million if a tree hits a wire.

The company's easements that abut thousands of homes and businesses give it broad legal rights beside its 8,000 miles of wires throughout the Lower Peninsula, ITC officials said.

Full article...
http://freep.com/article/20100222/NE...ing-by-utility

Contact BILL LAITNER: 586-826-7264 or blaitner@freepress.com[/quote"]blaitner@freepress.com"]blaitner@freepress.com[/EMAIL][/quote[/EMAIL]]