I could survive quite nicely, thank you. Got 4,000 gallons of diesel storage and my own genset that will power the home, well and shop just spiffy.
The reason why rural folks get so hoppin’ mad over these transmission lines is that the power/transmission companies always run these huge eyesores and disturbances through rural areas - to serve urban loads. They do this because the urbanites won’t allow power generation to be sited in their backyards, so the power plants go out in the rural areas, and now you need some way to get the power from the rural power generation point to the urban point of consumption.
The rapid growth in power consumption in Georgia is due mostly to air conditioning. Urbanites in the south want to live and work in artificial environments, and it takes great gobs of power to produce that artificial environment. I rather think that the urbanites should have to suffer the consequences of their own consumption - power plants literally in their backyards.
Oh — and since I’m guessing as to your next question “Well, wouldn’t you country bumpkins like to be on the grid too?” Well, yea, but here’s the funny think: until you achieve urban population densities, it is rather difficult to get a power utility to put in a substation to serve a very small rural community off a 230kV or 365kV transmission line. There are ranches here in Nevada that are off the grid that have a 230kV line running right through the middle of the ranch. Will the power company deliver service to ameliorate the destruction of property value from the transmission line running smack across the middle of the fields and pastures?
Heck no.
Heck no.
If you knew what it cost to build a substation you would not find that surprising.
For what it cost to build some substations they could buy most ranches.
If they built a multi-million dollar substation there what would they get one customer that would buy a couple of thousand dollars of electricity a year?