III. Discussion

Two of the three issues identified in this rulemaking (results of current policy, and improvements in mitigation policy) are evident in the utility design guidelines employed for EMF mitigation and the application of these guidelines to transmission line and substation projects. The comments and reply comments of parties form the basis for our decisionmaking. We thank those parties that contributed useful comments on the utility design guidelines and proposals to improve current mitigation practices.¹⁰ We address each of these matters below.

¹⁰ Some comments seek to recommend or address numeric EMF exposure standards, apply EMF mitigation to electric distribution lines, and argue for EMF mitigation policies expressly rejected by R.04-08-020, and the Scoping Memo. We do not further address these matters.