Feb 4 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rory Sweeney The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Where many people see an eyesore -- the swaths of low brush and high-voltage power lines that snake over ridges and valleys -- Leonard Reggie and his sons, Adam and Bryan, see an eco-friendly economic opportunity.

The Reggies, hoping to create a demand for their patent-pending machine to pelletize biomass for burning, are wagering that harvesting transmission-line rights-of-way would make an appealing application.

Through negotiations with landowners and use of eminent domain, electricity-generation companies clear miles of roughly 200-foot-wide rights-of-way across the country to construct transmission lines from their generating sites to substations to eventually be distributed to consumers.

The transmission corridors, which are often derided for their tendency to mar otherwise picturesque vistas, are usually vegetated with scrubby plants and tree stumps that utilities must keep maintained, but with a little forethought, that chore could easily be lifted from utilities and provide a lucrative enterprise for farmers.

"It does take some cost to maintain it," Bryan Reggie said, "when that land could be generating" money.

If it were instead planted with a worthwhile energy feedstock, such as switchgrass for ethanol production, farmers could harvest and sell it. The process could become profitable enough that, beyond utilities not paying to maintain it, farmers might offer money for the opportunity, Bryan Reggie said.

"Grass planted will look nicer than weeds and trees," and could reap profits of $600 per acre before costs are factor in, he estimated.

The Reggies are hoping to interest PPL Corp. in the idea before it builds a perhaps 100-mile transmission line from its Susquehanna nuclear plant to the Delaware River. The project, scheduled to begin in 2010, will connect from there to a substation in Roseland, N.J.

"If they just altered their practice just a little bit, like cut the trees to the ground rather than leave stumps, it would already be ready, like a prairie," Bryan Reggie said.

The family has no interest in taking the job, however. "From our point of view, we just want to show that that can be done," he said.

If it's as worthwhile as they expect, they suspect orders for their pelletizer will increase. They're eyeing a test plot under lines owned by UGI Utilities Inc., adjacent to their farm on Firecut Road, in Trucksville.

"With the right equipment, it wouldn't be too hard to convert it," Bryan Reggie said. All that would be necessary is a tractor, a forestry shredder, their pelletizer, seed and a spreader, he said. But since the process would take about two years to prepare, the equipment purchases could be spread out, he said.

And there are some side benefits, as well. Since the Reggies have begun planting switchgrass with millet as a cover crop on 6 acres nearby, they've seen an unprecedented increase in game birds. "We saw a bobwhite, and we'd never seen one up here before," Bryan Reggie said. "I haven't seen a grouse since I was little kid, so it's probably been 15 to 20 years. ... Saw more turkeys up here than I've seen before."

However, utilities have been lukewarm, at best, to the idea. Paul Wirth, a spokesman for PPL, called the idea "intriguing," but noted that his company doesn't actually own or lease the rights-of-way; it just pays for the right to build on the land and access it for line maintenance.

"That would be something that this company would have to negotiate with the landowner," he said.

Joe Rymer, a spokesman for UGI, said the company would need to retain access to the lines, despite any possible crop damage.

"We would talk with him and based on where it's at and how his interests lie, we would discuss it with him," Rymer said. "Generally speaking, though, our position is the same as PPL's regarding right of ways."

"From our point of view, we just want to show that that can be done."

Bryan Reggie

Inventor

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.