It’s time for Puget Sound Energy customers to start looking up at the wires and poles that will be part of Energize Eastside, a project to enlarge an existing 18-mile transmission line that runs from Renton to Redmond. Hurry, because you have until March 14 to submit your comments about this project.

Don’t know where that existing 18-mile transmission line is? Start by looking at the power lines and poles that run across the entire Tyee Middle School campus. They would be part of Energize Eastside. The wooden poles and wires would be replaced with metal poles almost twice as tall with wires that carry four times as much electricity. (They would look like the metal poles that run along the backside of Factoria Mall.)

Follow the wires north to see where they cross Interstate 90. You can also see them along the Kelsey Creek Greenbelt, Lake Boren, May Creek Park and running through the campus of Renton Technical College. They also cross the 520 bike trail and Highways 900 and 169.

PSE, along with utilities nationwide, is in the middle of an epic change regarding the way utilities deliver electricity to their customers. Many are successfully using demand response and smart grids rather than investing in older infrastructure. The Eastside is a center of technological innovation. Why is PSE choosing to waste ratepayer dollars on a dinosaur electrical system rather than investing in proven technologies that are the wave of the future?

Right now, your voice can really count. Submit your comment to PSE’s Energize Eastside Environment Impact Study at www.energizeeastsideeis.org/comment-form.html. I encourage you to say no to alternative 1-A (Energize Eastside) and support either the no action alternative or alternative 2.

In the meantime, look up and follow the wires.

Janis Medley

Bellevue