STATUS: In progress, with opposition
OPPOSITION: NGOs, such as Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, California Desert Coalition, The Redlands Conservancy, Friends of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, and Stop Green Path North Project. Also, governments of several localities through which the project would pass have adopted formal resolutions opposing the Green Path North, including: County of Riverside; San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors; Coachella Valley Association of Governments; City of Desert Hot Springs; Yucca Valley Town Council; Morongo Valley Community Services District; Joshua Tree Municipal Advisory Council; Twentynine Palms City Council; Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association; Johnson Valley Improvement Association; and Homestead Valley Community Council.
PROSPECTS: Indeterminate
BACKGROUND: Green Path North is a proposed 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission line project designed to bring electricity generated from renewable resources, such as geothermal, solar and wind, from inland California to the City of Los Angeles power grid. The original project called for a 500-kilovolt (kV) line, but the latest proposal reduces the towers to 230 kV. The planned rating is for 1200 megawatts of capacity with the potential to upgrade to 1600 megawatts. The project was proposed in 2006 and is still at the very beginning of the permitting process. Green Path North is being developed by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Imperial Irrigation District, Citizens Energy, and the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA). LADWP needs the project to help meet its renewable electricity mandate, which must be 35 percent by 2020. Currently, 11 percent of LADWP's electricity comes from renewable sources. Groups in opposition contend that the project will corrupt desert lands, cause hardship to people who will lose their houses due to the use of eminent domain, and have the skyline ruined by large electrical towers transporting ultra high voltage electricity. Due to substantial opposition, LADWP recently changed the routing of the line again. This is the seventh potential route proposed for the Green Path North. Unfortunately, each time the route is changed, a new or different group opposes it. The most recent proposal, known as Route A3, sidesteps the Mojave Desert, which was a major point of contention from NIMBY groups. However, the Redlands Conservancy already indicated their opposition with the Route A3 plan. Opposition groups are considering pushing for a legal declaration that Big Morongo Preserve is a protected wilderness area alongside Joshua Tree National Park, which would mean no power lines could pass through. Opponents are actively considering litigation, but to date no lawsuits have been filed. However, the administrative permit process has moved so slowly that NIMBYs have very little to sue as of yet.
In March 2009, Senator Feinstein announced plans to introduce legislation that would designate the Catellus lands in California’s Mojave Desert as a national monument. Specifically, the measure would protect lands wedged between Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve, including nearly 100,000 acres of National Park Service lands and 210,000 acres spread across 20 wilderness areas controlled by BLM. This legislation would essentially protect California desert lands from renewable projects. It would bar the installation of industrial solar facilities and would probably make it very difficult, if not impossible, to construct the Green Path North transmission line.
SOURCES: LADWP Green Path web site (http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp007434.jsp); Green Path web site (http://www.greenpath.us); Press-Enterprise (http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_greenpath27.40e3075.html); Hi-Desert Star (http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2009/02/25/news/doc49a4f695a3e3d462747465.txt) Environment & Energy Daily (http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/2009/03/19/archive/9?terms=feinstein+mojave+desert)
Comments