It’s been the burning question around town in recent weeks: Would Tooele County go to court to fight Rocky Mountain Power’s plan to string massive transmission lines along Tooele’s southeast benches? Or would the county accept as final — and perhaps inevitable — a decision by the Utah Utility Facility Review Board that the county must issue a conditional use permit for the project?

That question was answered last week when Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan announced the county’s legal strategy. He will first ask the board to stay its own order — a request that will almost certainly be denied. Then he will ask the state Court of Appeals to stay the order while also requesting it review whether or not the board followed its legislative mandate properly in arriving at the June decision.

We like that strategy and think it shows good common sense. After all, neither the stay nor the appeal are likely to incur significant legal costs, given that the county isn’t trying to make a exhaustive case against the power line route but rather simply questioning whether the board did the job for which it was established. And on the plus side, if the stay is granted while appeals and future appeals are heard, the project could be delayed indefinitely. That certainly benefits the county, since RMP has been going full steam ahead on its internal timetable and keeps asserting that it can’t accept any delays.

Time is money to RMP, and that gives Tooele County considerable bargaining leverage if it can slow down the process.

A delay might also buy the county enough time to look for remedies in the next legislative session, such as asking lawmakers to decide if the utility facility review board is performing the function for which it was established. That might also force the board to rehear the county’s case against the southeast bench route under guidelines much more favorable to the county.

Throughout much of this long-running battle between the county and RMP, Hogan has looked like a lone warrior fighting off the company’s hordes of attorneys and technical advisers. It’s a fight that has probably sharpened his understanding of the fact that while the company has all the resources in the world at its disposal, time is the one weapon that can be used against it.