SDG&E PLAN TO CUT POWER GETS FROSTY RECEPTION AT PUC HEARING; BACK COUNTRY RESIDENTS, PUBLIC OFFICIALS VOICE OBJECTIONS

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By Miriam Raftery

November  2008
(San Diego) — Public officials and backcountry residents leveled
harsh criticism at SG&E during a public meeting of the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC) convened in San Diego on October 14 to discuss
causes of the 2007 wildfires and how to prevent future conflagrations.  Speaker
after speaker blasted SDG&E’s proposal to cut power to 45,000 homes
during high fire risk conditions and urged commissioners to take action to
prevent future fires.  (Citizens with information for the CPUC may send
an e-mail to sd2007fires@cpuc.ca.gov.)

“The answer is maintenance and enforcement—not treating backcountry
residents with an interruptible power supply, as though they were a third world
nation,” State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth testified in opposition to
SDG&E’s announced shut-off plan for 45,000 customers.  The utility
temporarily backed off plans to kill power during the current red-flag alert
ending at 10 p.m. Wednesday night, but still seeks to go forward with the plan
after additional notification and preparation.

Senator
Christine Kehoe, who requested the CPUC hearing, urged commissioners to protect
the public interest.  “Now the 2008 fire season has begun…The
public is looking to you to make sure that the utilities you regulate are safe.”  Kehoe
called the 2007 fires “a disaster of historic proportion,” adding, “and
it could have been worse.”  Last year’s firestorms burned
over 200,000 acres, destroyed 1,700 homes, resulted in ten deaths and the evacuation
of over a half million people from San Diego County. 

A Cal Fire report has concluded that three of last year’s fires were
caused by SDG&E lines and also faulted Cox Communications for one of the
blazes.  “The report is clear: The 2007 Witch Creek, Guejito and
Rice fires could have been prevented,” Kehoe concluded.

Richard Clark, head of consumer safety  for the PUC, said that SDG&E “did
not fully cooperate with the PUC in a timely manner” into investigations
involving overhead conductors that the report suggests started fires.  He
also suggested that loose lashing wires at a Cox installation “could
be a more widespread problem.”  Clark called for a survey and remediation
to fix problems countywide.

Dr. Randolph Ward, San Diego City Office of Education,  testified that
SDG&E’s preemptive shut-off plan could be “an absolutely nightmare.”  He
observed, “We cannot support universal shutdown of our schools…e
need adequate time to notify parents that school will be closed.  After
a shutdown, schools will not meet health and safety requirements.”

Supervisor Dianne Jacob said she initially told SDG&E she would not oppose
the plan if it was done right.  But she added, “It was not.”  Jacob
said she expressly warned SDG&E to meet with all stakeholders such as stools
and to work with customers who have medical needs(such as respirators) and
landowners concerned about losing power for well pumps.  “People
feel blindsided by this plan and the way it was rolled out,” she said,
then asked commissioners to provide oversight of “this extremely ill-conceived
plan.”  She added that SDG&E has failed to replace wood poles
with safer steel poles in many key areas (though some conversions have been
done).  Jacob also urged the CPUC to require SDG&E to space lines
further apart and to underground power lines in high fire areas.

She also asked
for a change in regulations to allow local jurisdictions to expend funds for
undergrounding power lines.

Jacob called SDG&E’s continued push for Sunrise Powerlink “unconscionable,” adding
that it would significantly increase the likelihood of wildfires.  “Sunrise
Powerlink would be the equivalent of walking into the backcountry, striking
a match and throwing it on a line,” she said bluntly. “Not building
Sunrise Powerlink is a way to prevent fires.”

Donna Tisdale, planning group chair in rural Boulevard, criticized SDGE for
failing to replace old lines.  “Instead of investing in upgrades
in their lines, they just plan to cut off our power…We had a fire in
Campo today, and one witness said it was caused by a downed power line,” she
revealed.  “SDG&E has given the backcountry a royal flip off.”

Tisdale said that while some backcountry residents are prepared for power
shut-offs with generators or other preparations, many seniors can’t afford
a generator or the fuel to run one.  “Our volunteer fire department
does not have a generator,” she added.  Tisdale expressed concern
that if power is shut off, people may fire up old and potentially dangerous
generators and light up woodburning stoves to keep warm.  “How much
safer is that than just keeping the power on?” she asked. 

Tisdale also criticized SDG&E’s proposal to run Sunrise Powerlink
through her area.  “Bottom line: SDG&E wants to run high voltage
power lines through our community, but they do not want to run power to our
communites.”

SDG&E Vice President David Geier defended the company’s actions.  He
called the 2007 wildfires “an unprecedented event” citing high
wind speeds. “The fact is that Southern California is becoming hotter
and drier, and we must take proactive measures to prevent those fires.”  He
faulted CPUC for turning down proposals made by SDG&E and said SDG&E
is taking steps to make lines safer, including installing steel poles in some
areas and inspecting lines in the backcountry.  As for problems caused
by shutting off power proactively, he responded, ‘There are trade-offs.”

In answer to concerns over those with medical equipment, he observed, “We
will exclude circuits with medical needs customers on them.”  (SDG&E’s
public relations spokesperson previously told ECM that people with
medical needs could receive help by calling an 800 phone line.  Readers
who tried this have informed us that they were merely told to “get a
generator.”)

Cox Communications vice president Bill Gephart said Cox was “stunned” to
hear that its lashing could be at fault for rubbing against an SDG&E line.   He
suggested that the lashing broke as a result of contact with the line and was
not the cause. But he added, “This season we are rechecking our entire
network in the fire-prone area.”

The Cox executive expressed serious concerns over SDG&E’s plan to
cut power during fire danger.  “This could impact anyone who uses
a cell phone or a computer to get emergency help,” he said.  “735,000
people depend on cable TV and Internet services to receive up to date information.”

Santa Ysabel homeowner Denis Trafecanti testified that SDG&E tried to
cut down sycamore limbs that fell onto a power line and also attempted to replace
poles before investigators from Cal Fire arrived.   He called for
passage of incentives to enable homeowners to buy rooftop solar.

Sierra Club president Jeanette Hartman of Julian echoed that sentiment.  “We
need a massive program to head us in the direction of onsite energy,” she
said, adding that a chiropractor in her area purchased a wind turbine that
paid for itself in energy savings within eight months.

Michael Shames, president of the Utility Consumers’ Action Network in
San Diego, called for subsidized or low-cost solar energy and urged CPUC to
consider fairness issues in energy pricing.  He said SDG&E should
not be able to charge the same rate to customers with uninterrupted supplies
as to customers facing power shut offs.

A firefighter testified that shutting off power was the “wrong approach” and
said pulling the plug could cause problems for people trying to evacuate, such
as traffic signals and phones not working. 

Ray Lutz, an electrical engineer and candidate for 77th Assembly District,
called SDG&E’s grids “old yesteryear technology.”  He
accused SDG&E of “milking the public over an old grid without upgrading” and
added that upgrades should enable solar energy produced by consumers to flow
into the grid. 

A Scripps Ranch resident with three hard-of-hearing family members testified
that they did not receive reverse 911 calls at home.  He asked for text
message versions of the reverse 911 calls.

Diane Conklin of Ramona noted that San Diego has the highest number of power
line fires in the state.  She fears that Sunrise Powerlink would cause “catastrophic
power line fires” fueled by Santa Ana winds.  “We are the
taxpayers and ratepayers. We pay the price, we suffer the losses,” she
said, “and we require actions that keep the public in mind.”

Dr. Joseph Mitchell of Ramona said he authored a report on power line fires
and was surrounded on three sides by the Witch Creek fire.  He recommended
that regulations be reexamined before the next disaster and called for a review
that includes all stakeholders. He also urged that lines be engineered for
high winds with a 200 to 300 return time similar to what is already done for
earthquakes.

City Buxton of the Sierra Club told commissioners to “connect the dots
between the  Harris and Witch fires.”   According to Buxton,
eyewitnesses saw a ball of flames and were “running for their lives” after
power came back on following an outage.  “That suggests a short,” she
said.  “Had this been protected, we would still have our legacy
500 year old forest.” She urged that the line be removed completely and
said letters asking about the source of the fire have been ignored by SDG&E.  “People
could have died if this had not occurred when they were still awake,” she
added.

Warren Sanders of the Santee Chamber of Commerce cited the need for “safe,
effective power” for the area.

Ed Clark, an electrical engineer, asked why the CPUC has not acted on evidence
which he has presented that he believes indicate fires in both 2007 and 2003
were caused by improper power line installations by SDG&E.  (SDG&E
disputes his claim; watch for an upcoming special report by ECM regarding Clark’s
allegations.)

A landowner testified that he has twice seen line separations and that a fire
that resulted burned portions of his property.  “We tried to show
SDG&E that they caused damage to our property. They didn’t listen.” 

Jeff Wood of Santee, who owns a ranch in Witch Creek, told a similar story. “Those
lines that run through my property have started fires before…They’ve
been neglected.”

He expressed outrage at SDG&E for the utility’s refusal to fix line
problems.  “If I had started the fire, I’d be in jail.  There’s
been a lot of damage simply because they didn’t want to fix their lines;
they caused all this carnage.”


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