STATUS: In progress, with opposition
OPPOSITION: A wide range of NGOs, including national groups Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, and local groups Desert Protective Council and North County Coastal Group.
PROSPECTS: Likely
BACKGROUND: San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has proposed a 1,000-megawatt line from the geothermal energy sources in California's Imperial Valley to the San Diego metropolitan area. The 100-mile, $1.9 billion high-voltage line is needed by SDG&E to meet the state's mandate of 20 percent renewable electricity by 2010. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger strongly supports the Sunrise Powerlink project. According to opposition groups Desert Protective Council, the Sunrise Powerlink dates back as far as the early 1980s, when San Diego community groups fought another eastern transmission line, the Southwest Powerlink. In 2001, SDG&E attempted to build the Rainbow-Valley transmission line on much of the same land, a project that failed in 2003 when the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted against the Rainbow-Valley project by a 3-2 vote. Formal applications for the current Sunrise Powerlink project were submitted to the CPUC in 2005, and the CPUC approved the Sunrise project in December 2008. Environmental group Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) then sued in the California State Supreme Court, charging the CPUC with violating environmental law when it approved the project. On January 20, 2009, the Bureau of Land Management issued a favorable Record of Decision for the project. However, the approval includes 76 pages of conditions, which include extensive environmental mitigation demands. Opponents argue that the renewable energy claim is just a smokescreen for SDG&E, and that the company really intends to use the new lines to transport electricity from its natural gas power plants in Mexico to the U.S. Instead, the opposition would rather focus on upgrading the existing grid, increasing energy conservation, and building renewable plants closer to population centers. Ironically, delay of this project will most likely cause SDG&E to miss its 2010 mandatory renewable electricity targets.
SOURCES: Sunrise Powerlink web site (http://www.sdge.com/sunrisepowerlink); CPUC Sunrise Powerlink web page (http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/environment/info/aspen/sunrise/sunrise.htm); Energy & Environment News ClimateWire (http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2009/01/22/archive/4?terms=powerlink) (subscription required); Desert Protective Council (NIMBY group) (http://www.dpcinc.org/_new/sunrise_powerlink_history.pdf).
SOURCES: Sunrise Powerlink web site (http://www.sdge.com/sunrisepowerlink); CPUC Sunrise Powerlink web page (http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/environment/info/aspen/sunrise/sunrise.htm); Energy & Environment News ClimateWire (http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2009/01/22/archive/4?terms=powerlink) (subscription required); Desert Protective Council (NIMBY group) (http://www.dpcinc.org/_new/sunrise_powerlink_history.pdf).
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