“The power in Rocky Mountain Power means something other than electricity,” says Richard Nicholas, whose land here will be traversed by the 345-kilovolt line scheduled to begin construction soon.

“People have no rights, and that's wrong. We have been bullied around . . . Power companies have more power than government!”

Nicholas' sentiment - if not his blunt appraisal - is echoed by Box Elder County mayors and commissioners. They believe they had no real say in where the 150-foot-wide power corridor goes through their communities and countryside.

The Utah Public Service Commission considers only whether the line is needed, not the route it takes. And Utah law says any city or county demanding a route change risks footing the bill if they don't prevail in their last recourse - a complaint to the state's Utility Facility Review Board.

Even then, Rocky Mountain still has the biggest leverage of all: the right to condemn property if a landowner won't sell land or grant an easement.

“It's a David and Goliath feeling,” says County Commissioner Clark Davis.

But Goliath, Rocky Mountain Power, is used to such criticism, even if it has not had to deal with a project of this scope in northern Utah since the 1970s.

“Whenever we build a facility of any kind, we typically face substantial public outcry from some quarter,” says company spokesman Dave Eskelsen. “I wouldn't agree that people are absolutely powerless.”

Cities and counties have zoning codes and can negotiate for concessions. In this case, they have. Rocky Mountain tweaked its route to avoid several homes in east Garland and moved the line higher up the bench at south Willard.

“We think we are as flexible as we can be - within reason,” says Eskelsen.

Nonetheless, the line has to go somewhere, says his colleague, Margaret Oler. The route Rocky Mountain chose is the most efficient, she says.

“The Intermountain West is growing, growing, growing,” says Oler. “We simply need to get it [electricity] here for our customers.”

$750 million project: The power line is part of a $750 million project designed to bring coal-fired and wind-generated power from Wyoming and Idaho to the Wasatch Front.

It includes a major new substation in Downey, Idaho. The 345 kV line will run south for 90 miles through Box Elder County to a substation south of Willard Bay. Another leg goes 46 miles to a substation near Salt Lake City International Airport. That segment has not been controversial; it will go in a corridor already packed with power lines.

Through Box Elder County, though, Rocky Mountain plans a new route that roughly parallels Interstate 15. Then, at the south side of Honeyville, it would jump up to the valley bench and run southward above Brigham City, Perry, Willard and south Willard.

The Box Elder Council of Governments and the mayors association want Rocky Mountain to build the line along the bench farther north in an existing power line corridor above Collinston, Deweyville and Honeyville. Then, the elected officials say, it could go along the east side of I-15 from Honeyville south.

But that alternative is costly. The company says it would bump up the budget by $36 million - an expense the cities and county could have to pay if the state's Utility Facility Review Board sides with Rocky Mountain Power.

Among Box Elder's cities, only Deweyville and Honeyville agree with the utility's route, saying they don't want yet another power line on their bench.

Lack of jurisdiction: Phil Powlick, director of Utah's Division of Public Utilities, says that while the state has no role in siting power lines, local governments do.

“People are saying they don't have a voice, but that's what their local governments are there to do,” he says.

Perhaps, says Willard Planner Jay Aguilar, but the small cities are at a handicap. They lack the resources - and the jurisdiction - to study the environmental effects and relative merits of various routes.

Willard has just 1,800 residents and a budget of $700,000, and it's trying to match wits with a deep-pocketed company that already has made up its mind, he says.

“Nobody is guarding the henhouse is what it comes down to,” says Aguilar. “Why should it fall on our shoulders to analyze this?”

And Elwood Mayor Lynn Hardy laughs at the suggestion the cities and county have much say in where the power line goes.

“Why haven't all these communities stopped them? It's because we can't,” he says.

In neighboring Tremonton, the opposition is mainly about property values.

Mayor Max Weese points out that the city just built a $2.5 million road for a new industrial park, and now the power line will go between the road and that park. The Bear River Health Department had planned to go into the park, but now won't build, he says.

Some of Weese's constituents say they're not ready to roll over for the utility.

“They act like we're puppets up here, like we have no business complaining,” says Charles Taylor, whose land was to become much of the industrial park.

Bear River Valley landowner Nicholas says Rocky Mountain Power has never answered why it can't put the power line farther west, away from the cities. “It affects more people than it has to,” he says.

Oler, from Rocky Mountain, says it's a familiar complaint.

“Nobody wants it in their backyard,” she says.

But Aguilar says that's not quite accurate.

“We're trying to tell them where in our backyards. That's a huge difference.”

kmoulton@sltrib.com