what would an arc flash off one of those look like?
AC doesn’t lose much, again see Tesla VS Edison. 
Hint, Tesla OWNS Edison. Sorry had to throw that in there.
Probably a lot like lightning.
I heard it on the radio a few weeks ago too, not sure if it was true or not. Can’t find a news article on it, Googling “Google” is harder than it seems, I must have caused it to divided by 0 
of course there is. They make more money selling it there than they do here, even though we have some of the highest electric costs in the country. The electric system in nyc/surrounding areas is like a house of cards, like say if you had a problem in only a few major transmission lines or if a power plant had a problem (say, like indian pt nuclear plant) in the heat of summer, i would not be surprised to see rolling blackouts etc. If i had to put money on it, your gonna see either another major transmission line being planned to that area within the next 10 years, or another power plant being built close by. Me personally, id bet on another transmission line. Some of the bigger transmission lines that stretch across the state are 230kv or 345kv, there are stretches of 765kv line from up near massena ny down to marcy ny, iirc. Plus, they always run the lines higher voltage than they were typically designed for to minimize loss, I.E: 230kv line at 245kv+ etc.
Edit: Tesla >*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au1nJ-2zg0w&feature=channel_page
opening a 230kv switch under load(goes bad)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FsRZ-I9_F0&feature=channel_page
138kv line arc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7CibcPNPxU&feature=related
opening 500kv switch under load (very impressive)
no.