RESIDENTS STAGE PROTEST IN LAKESIDE OVER POWERLINK; SUPERIVSOR JACOB LEADS FIGHT TO HALT SEMPRA/SDG&E PROJECT

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By Miriam Raftery

"This line is really about bringing fossil fuels up from the plant owned by SDG&E in Mexico," said Dianne Jacob, chair of the County Board of Supervisors. "We do not need this line to meet San Diego County's energy needs now or in the future...Follow the money to see who supports Sunrise Powerlink."

February 28, 2009 (Lakeside) — “We do not need this line to meet San Diego County’s energy needs now or in the future,” Dianne Jacob, chair of the County Board of Supervisors, told a crowd of 200 to 300 Lakeside residents at a February 25th community meeting on Sunrise Powerlink. She accused the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) of ignoring fire safety warnings raised in an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which concluded that the line was rated “the highest fire risk possible” and that “fire risk could not be mitigated.” Jacob added, “Follow the money--Some public officials supported the line even before there was an EIR report. Their votes were bought, in my opinion.”

 

View Rob Constantine’s video of officials and Lakeside residents speaking. Also view the new "Save El Monte Valley from Sempra Powerlink Towers" (includes footage of valley during the Cedar Fire, now, and images with computer-generated towers) or visit www.saveelmontevalley.com. Video of Dianne Jacobs’ speech, compliments of Rob Constantine.

Next door in the Lakeside Community Center, about 30 SDG&E representatives met with area residents in a room filled with displays of large-scale solar and wind farms, along with signs that read “Clean Energy” and “Sunrise Powerlnk.” But Jacob called the company’s renewable energy claims “false” and said, “This line is really about bringing fossil fuels up from the LNG (liquid natural gas) plant owned by SDG&E in Mexico.”

Asked how many people attended the Sempra Energy presentation, Sandra Dedie of SDG&E replied, “We have about 100 people signed in.” SDG&E maintains that Powerlink is needed to assure a reliable power supply for our region.

Lakeside residents opposed to Powerlink staged a protest rally outside and held their own meeting in a room paid for by Jacob’s office, attracting a much larger crowd and emotional testimony from area residents wearing stickers that read “Shame on SDG&E and Sempra.”

SDG&E displays claim Powerlink will include energy from fossil fuels, but the utility refused a CPUC request to agree to provide renewable energy through Powerlink as a condition for the project's approval.

Jacob called the CPUC approval of Powerlink by a 4 to 1 vote in December “a terrible sham,” adding, “I consider it one of the biggest injustices ever perpetrated in this region.” She noted that four CPUC commissioners appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger voted in favor of the project after the Governor sent a letter urging approval. She also faulted local business organizations and urged the audience to “follow the money” to determine who supports the line, noting that that Sempra/SDG&E representatives sit on many boards and donate money to various local organizations.

“I suggest because they are very successful at giving lots of money to chambers of commerce, they have bought influence,” Jacob said bluntly. She revealed that she asked Sempra for a guarantee that the Powerlink line would carry renewable energy, but that the utility refused. Jacob called for rooftop solar incentives instead of Powerlink, which she termed “an expensive extension cord.”

The Supervisor called the battle a “David vs. Goliath” fight and urged residents to support legal actions being taken by the Utility Consumers Action Network (UCAN) and the Center for Bioversity.

Donna Tisdale, who heads up Backcountry Against the Dump, said the nonprofit organization is preparing to sue the Bureau of Land Management for approving Powerlink on federal lands in East County. “A lot of beautiful valleys are involved in this,” she said, citing McCain, Jacumba, Hauser and El Monte valleys, among others. But she added, “There is nothing stronger than the power of the people when we put our minds to it.”

“We were blind-sided,” said Joan Embery, best known as the San Diego Zoo’s Goodwill Ambassador and a frequent past guest on the Johnny Carson show. She described intrusions on her own property from SDG&E including dynamite, poison, helicopters and large vehicles to service existing high voltage towers on her ranch. She also disputed a statement made by an SDG&E representative at last week/s meeting, who claimed the utility was working with San Diego River Park to create open space for wildflire.

“I contacted Michael Beck,” she said, referring to the organization’s leader. “The Board of Directors has not considered a plan (proposed by SDG&E). It would be inaccurate to suggest otherwise.” Moreover, she added that environmental groups are working together to enhance habit for wildlife in Lakeside’s El Monte Valley and Puetz Valley near Alpine. “Powerlink will significantly compromise this effort,” she said.
 

Over 300 Lakeside residents attended a rally to oppose Sunrise
Powerlink on Wednesday, Feb. 25th.

Fire Chief Mark Baker confirmed he was never consulted for the EIR and said high voltage lines could “impair and inhibit” fire suppression, depending where lines are located, as well as increasing risk of “conditions that can create ground faulting and cause injury or death to our firefighters on the ground.” In an area that has historically seen fires for the past hundred years, he observed, “Both our aerial and ground firefighting abilities could be inhibited”¦I don’t see how it can be mitigated.”

 

A Cedar Fire victim who lives in Wildcat Canyon, where 14 people died in 2003, raised this concern. “Where the power lines would be is our only exit from the canyon.” She recalled that during the Cedar Fire, officials closed people into Barona Casino to keep roads clear “so we could escape with our lives.”

 

Chief Baker confirmed that El Monte is also a box canyon with a single entrance. “There is one way in, and one way out.”
 

 Ray Lutz, founder of Citizens Oversight Panels, a watchdog organization, and past Assembly candidate, agreed that the project won approval through “greased wheels” to benefit Sempra’s bottom line and that it should be stopped.

SDG&E had displays and personnel on hand to field questions from Lakeside residents on Powerlink.

Denis Traficanty from Borrego co-founded Protect Our Community foundation and has helped lead opposition toPowerlink, which was originally proposed for Anza-Borrego State Park until public opposition led to an alternate route through vast portions of East County. Noting that the project now faces opposition from both Democrats and Republicans who may agree on little else, he drew chuckles when he observed, “We can go to the dance together but we don’t have to go home.”

 

A two minute video showed how the 2003 Cedar Fire devastated El Monte Valley. “In 2003, we thought we’d lost our valley to flames,” a narrator stated. Later, video footage of the valley recovered from the fire, filled with wildfires and llamas grazing. A woman in the video voiced concerns that if Sempra’s Powerlink is built, homes will be uninsurable. “This is our valley,” she concluded,” and I stand to fight them “˜til I die.”

 

Miriam Raftery is a national award-winning journalist who has been covering wildfire and energy issues in San Diego County for more than 20 years.
 


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Comments

El Monte Valley Power Poles

Do we really want Power poles on a historic village site?
"The conclusion is inescapable. Cullamác was the Diegueno name for the village of the "Great Captain," located just above the bend of the San Diego River where it turns north in the shadow of, or "behind the peak" formerly called El Capitan Grande, now El Cajon Peak. It was not identical with the Cuyamác of the high mountains further east. These were two distinct villages, located in two widely separated mountain valleys". Quote from: San Diego History.org