State Orders SDG&E to Explore Route Around Park

Ramona - Sep 14 - North County Times

A state commissioner on Wednesday directed San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to go back to the drawing board for its proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line and come up with an alternative route that goes around Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

At a five-hour public meeting in Ramona on the controversial power line proposal, California Public Utilities Commissioner Dian Grueneich said it was concerning that SDG&E's preferred and alternative routes all run through California's largest state park.

Grueneich asked that the utility devise an alternate plan that avoids the park in time for a round of scoping meetings planned for the first week of October. She made the statement at a preliminary hearing on the $1.3 billion project attended by about 400 people at the Charles Nunn Performing Arts Center at Ramona's Olive Peirce Middle School.

Jim Avery, vice president of electric for SDG&E, said during a break that the utility will have no trouble meeting the directive, as it earlier examined ---- and rejected ---- routes outside the park.

Avery said the only ways to avoid the park are to run a line along the border, next to an existing transmission line, or loop north of San Diego County and go through Riverside County. Both locations would require going through American Indian reservations and national forest land, which SDG&E cannot cross without special legislation. Avery noted SDG&E wants to follow an existing easement it has across the state park. However, Sunrise would require expanding that easement and eliminating 73 acres of wilderness, according to state officials.

At the meeting, called a prehearing conference, SDG&E proposed a schedule for reviewing the project. Utility attorney Gregory Barnes suggested the utilities commission hold formal hearings on the merits of the project in January and make a decision by September 2007.

"If the project is turned down at that time, we'll be better positioned to make other arrangements to keep the lights on," Barnes said, saying SDG&E's goal is to start construction by April 2008 and bring Sunrise on line by summer 2010.

Earlier this summer, a federal report named the Southern California region, including San Diego County, one of the two areas of the country most in need of new transmission lines. As a result, SDG&E likely would be able to shift its application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission if it does not get a favorable decision from the state. SDG&E could ask for such a shift as early as September 2007. That's because the state Public Utilities Commission determined SDG&E's application to be complete last Friday, and after one year the federal commission could take over.

A decision on the schedule is anticipated by early October.

SDG&E is proposing to string wires from towers as tall as 160 feet along a route that would meander north and west for 150 miles across the backcountry of Imperial and San Diego counties from El Centro to Carmel Valley. The wires would create a metallic skyline for residents along the edges of urban areas. However, some sections through neighborhoods ---- those in Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos ---- would be buried underground.

The project would deliver 1,000 megawatts of electricity, roughly one-fourth of what the utility's consumers use on the hottest of summer days. SDG&E, which serves 1.3 million homes and businesses in San Diego County and south Orange County, maintains it needs the extra power to shore up a forecasted shortfall early next decade.

The San Diego-based utility also maintains the project is needed to open a way for plugging into planned solar and geothermal plants near the Salton Sea in Imperial County. Those projects would tap the power of the sun and underground geysers. SDG&E and other major California utilities are faced with having to obtain at least a fifth of their electricity from such non-fossil fuel sources beginning in 2010 to comply with a state regulation.

Project opponents don't dispute the need for more electricity and the need to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. But they say there are better, less expensive ways to close the projected shortfall. And opponents say there is plenty of opportunity to build plants within San Diego County that rely on solar, wind and other nontraditional energy sources and would leave a much smaller footprint on the landscape.

After going over the process that will be used to judge the project, utilities commission officials took testimony from about 80 people, many opposed and some in favor.

One of those who spoke against was San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents Ramona and the backcountry.

"Unprecedented in size and price, Sunrise is the single largest energy infrastructure proposal in the history of the region," Jacob said. "It has generated a mountain of doubt."

But the proposal is one worthy of building, said Jerry Butkiewicz, secretary-treasurer for the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He warned of blackouts like those experienced during California's 2000-01 electricity crisis if the line is not built. And he said Sunrise would boost the economy of Imperial County, which has the state's lowest wages and highest unemployment rate.

Other business representatives from San Diego County argued for building Sunrise, while dozens of backcountry residents said building the giant towers would ruin their quality of life.

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