Center for Biological Diversity
BECAUSE LIFE IS GOOD

Protecting endangered species and wild places through
science, policy, education, and environmental law.

For immediate release
January 30, 2006

Contact:
David Hogan, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 809-9244
Kelly Fuller, Sierra Club, (619) 445-4390

Conservationists to oppose major new power line at Tuesday meeting
State utilities commission will consider SDG&E’s “Sunrise Powerlink” in Ramona

San Diego, Calif. – Two conservation groups will testify against San Diego Gas and Electric’s “Sunrise Powerlink” transmission line project in a formal hearing to be hosted by the California Public Utilities Commission in Ramona on Tuesday, January 31.  The hearing will be held at the Ramona Community Center at 434 Aqua Lane at 2 p.m., and representatives from the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club will likely be joined by a host of other groups, companies, agencies, and residents opposing the project.

Last Friday, January 27, the conservation groups also submitted their second major filing against the powerlink in utilities commission proceedings.  The groups opposed SDG&E’s move for preferential treatment by the utilities commission with the company’s requested exemption from standard filing requirements.  The groups also opposed the company’s request for an early decision by the commission on the “purpose and need” of the project separate from and prior to a thorough environmental analysis on route location.

“Stealth maneuvers by SDG&E to undermine standard state permitting for the project have backfired,” said David Hogan, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Urban Wildlands Program.  “Add corporate subterfuge to the list of public concerns over the project’s impacts on people, parks and the environment.”

“If SDG&E really wanted public participation, it would have followed the standard application process,” added Kelly Fuller of the Sierra Club. “Instead, SDG&E wasted working people’s time with dog and pony shows where the public received candy bars and fish tacos instead of useful information.”

The Sunrise Powerlink is a major new large-capacity power line proposed for construction from the Imperial Valley to the north coastal City of San Diego through the heart of many communities, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the Cleveland National Forest, and the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Plan preserve.  The new line is intended primarily to move imported power from Mexico and help SEMPRA increase its market power in southern California.

Copies of the groups’ filings with the utilities commission are available in pdf format by request to dhogan@biologicaldiversity or at: www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/sprawl/sunrise-powerlink.html.

Other formal protests and responses on the Sunrise Powerlink have also been filed by the Ratepayers Division of the California Public Utilities Commission; Duke Energy; the cities of Hemet, Murrieta, and Temecula; the Imperial Irrigation District; Utility Consumers’ Action Network; and individuals.

For more information, see the Center for Biological Diversity's Sunrise Powerlink website.

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