What it would take to put all our electric lines underground

Nationally, there are 160,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and, according to one estimate, 5.5 million miles of local distribution lines. Mike Beehler, national spokesman for the Power Delivery Intelligence Initiative, a trade group advocating the undergrounding, or burying, of lines, says that in most of the country putting a line underground is easier and less expensive than in California. “The cost of underground is coming down,” he said.