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County Residents May Be Far From Power Line Debate

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Gig Conaughton, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Mar. 22--North County residents got their first look at how a proposed $1.4 billion, 120-mile long string of high-power lines would affect their neighborhoods Monday.

But most of the debate about whether the project should be approved is likely to occur before California Public Utility Commission members in San Francisco, far from where San Diego County residents would be able to speak their minds about the project.

Getting in on the debate will probably require county residents to write letters, send e-mails, attend "open house" meetings scheduled about the power line and connect with local groups who have already weighed in on the project, officials said Tuesday.

Kelly Fuller, spokeswoman for the San Diego and Imperial Counties chapter of the Sierra Club ---- which opposes the proposed "energy superhighway" ---- said county residents should scan the Web sites created by community groups and by San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which is proposing the project.

"What they should do is get informed," she said. "They'll have a chance to make up their own minds."

After that, Fuller said, people should send off letters to their political representatives and the utilities commission to voice their opinions.

Already, groups including the Ramona Alliance Against Sunrise Powerlink, Rancho Penasquitos Concerned Citizens, People's Powerlink and the Utility Consumers' Action Network have created Web sites opposing the project.

SDG&E officials announced Monday, after several months of anxious speculation, the exact route through which they propose to erect the high-power lines, almost entirely on 130-foot to 160-foot tall towers. The lines would run from Imperial Valley through Ramona, Poway, Scripps Ranch, Rancho Penasquitos and Carmel Valley.

SDG&E ---- a public utility owned by for-profit energy giant Sempra Energy ---- says San Diego County needs the new transmission lines by 2010 in order to make sure the county has enough electricity to meet growing demand.

California Public Utility Commission officials said Tuesday that they would typically try to hold some hearings about a project in the communities that would be affected, although most of the debate would occur in their San Francisco home offices.

The commission is the regulatory agency that must approve the project for it to be built.

Fuller said she heard that the commission planned to hold at least one, and perhaps two, hearings in San Diego County.

However, there is no timetable for when those hearings may take place, because SDG&E, opponents and the commission itself are waiting for a judge's ruling on part of the process.

In December, SDG&E filed its formal plan outlining why the power-line project was needed ---- but purposely did not include its preferred route for where the towering transmission lines would run.

Identifying a project's route is normally required in the commission's "need assessments." But SDG&E asked if it could have the commission rule on whether the project was needed first ---- without knowing where the lines would run and how communities might be affected.

An administrative law judge is still weighing SDG&E's request to be allowed to separate the "need" assessment from the route, and no timetable for hearings on the project will be set until the ruling is handed down, commission officials said Tuesday.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, meanwhile, also urged county residents to get as much information as they could about the project, and to write letters airing their opinions.

Fuller said the Sierra Club does not believe that the project is actually needed, and that SDG&E could build more power generation stations in the county.

Jacob, who served for two years on a regional energy commission, agreed.

"The focus should not be on where this line should run," Jacob said Tuesday. "The focus really should be on why we need this line at all."

Jacob said she agreed with SDG&E that the county needs more electrical power. But she said the company should be creating that power by upgrading existing SDG&E power plants in South Bay and Carlsbad, building an already-permitted new power plant in Otay Mesa, and putting electricity-creating solar panels on rooftops countywide.

SDG&E officials have said those actions would be either ineffective or too expensive.

Company Senior Vice President Jim Avery says the new power lines would bring enough new electricity to power 750,000 to 1 million homes, much of it "green, clean" electricity created by geothermal steam, wind and solar power.

According to SDG&E's estimates, the region's thirst for power will outstrip its supply by 260 megawatts in 2010, 447 megawatts in 2012 and 737 megawatts in 2015.

However, critics have charged that the new lines would be built to buy electricity from power plants in Arizona and Mexico ---- plants owned by Sempra, SDG&E's parent company.

"Is this all about making more money, company profits ---- or to really serve the people?" Jacob said.

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To see more of the North County Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nctimes.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: North County Times

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