Wind farm developers and utility companies know the meaning of NIMBY, the oft-cited not-in-my-backyard syndrome that limits where one can put a turbine and where the other can lay power lines to carry that energy.

There's another acronym that Allegheny Energy became acquainted with when it embarked on a decadelong quest to lay 500 miles of transmission lines across the Northeast U.S., and that's BANANAs, or "build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything," joked spokesman Doug Colafella.

The utility, which recently received the go-ahead to start construction of the $1.3 billion Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL) project, ran up against civil war reenactors guarding historic fighting grounds, farmers and landowners who didn't want the electric towers to block their land, and conservation critics who argue that rearranging the way the grid works can save it from expanding.

Convincing people at times meant appealing to a sense of urgency underscored by the American Wind Energy Association,... [continue via Web link]