CENSE President Don Marsh was interviewed by Seattle Times and KUOW Radio about the current status of permitting for Energize Eastside.

The Seattle Times article was printed in the December 4th paper.

The KUOW interview was broadcast on Dec 2nd. You can listen to the interview on the KUOW Website (MP3 audio link), or read the transcript below.

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An Eastside neighborhood group is taking the City of Bellevue to court over a major power line project. Puget Sound Energy wants to build a high voltage line and needs approval from Bellevue and surrounding cities to do it. KUOW’s Paige Browning reports:

Bellevue was the first of five cities to approve the project, called Energize Eastside, which would run from Redmond to Renton. Now the neighborhood group called CENSE is appealing to the King County Superior Court. CENSE president Don Marsh says Bellevue and PSE haven’t proven a new line is needed, and he predicts demand will decrease due to energy efficiency:

“PSE has not released data that shows that demand for electricity is actually growing. We see that surrounding utilities are forecasting demand is actually going to decrease in the next twenty years.”

PSE argues demand will increase which is why it needs a higher voltage line. CENSE will appeal Bellevue’s decision, and in the meantime PSE will ask surrounding cities to vote yes.

— Paige Browning, KUOW News