Why have pylons across the Waikato become a big cause of argument Essay

Why have pylons across the Waikato become a big cause of argument among farmers and the government - Essay Example There were three approaches to the solution of the Anti-Transpower. Farmers filed a court case against Transpower to stop the company from erecting pylons across their farms. The pylons would occupy their precious land and also spoil the outlook of the area. In short, the farmers wanted compensation. There were three possible solutions were; full compensation for farmers by Transpower Company, the use of an alternative route for the transmission pylons or the employment of underground cables. The establishment of 10km of underground cables was underway though the farmers were not satisfied (Boyes, 2005). During the period 2006/2007 Louise Upston, who was the member of parliament of Taupo, sued Transpower. She did not want the pylons to cross her farm and other people’s farms. Unfortunately, The Environment Court ruled against her and authorized Transpower to proceed. This showed how determined the government was to achieve its goals. Transpower agreed to compensate three hundred and eight land owners $165 million. Each owner of land was compensated with at least $500,000, but some got more in correspondence to the magnitude of land occupied buy pylons (Tocker, 2012a). Transpower, state owned electricity Generation Company intended to upgrade the grid systems. This was aimed at increasing the power needs by New Zealanders. New Zealand is a developed country and therefore the 220kV power is not enough. The company wanted to increase the capacity to 400kV. The Resource Management Act, reviewed in 2004 favored Transpower. It gave the government power to control property ownership to protect the government interests. Disturbingly, the farmers from Waikato had a different opinion. They feared that the pylons would cost them a fortune due to the damages of property during the construction process (Contrafed Publishing, 2010). Apparently, the farmers criticized the Transpower for using pylons. The farmers argued that the structures will not only hinder their