Printer-friendly version
East County News Service
December 13, 2020 (San Diego’s East County) – San Diego County Supervisors have voted to delay until January 27, 2021 a decision on Renewable Energy Overlay Options originally slated for Dec. 9, 2020. The options aim to streamline approval of industrial-scale wind and solar projects across much of East County’s rural, mountain and desert areas.
Donna Tisdale, Chair of the Boulevard Planning Group, says the delay is because on the original hearing date, “much of the backcountry was without power or expecting to be shut off. It is hard to participate in virtual Board meetings when your power is purposefully shut off,” she says of the SDG&E planned power outages to prevent fires during high winds.
The delay means that Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who has long voiced concerns about industrial-scale energy projects in the backcountry, will be out of office due to term limits. Joel Anderson, who won the November election for the district 2 Supervisorial seat by less than 300 votes, will be East County’s representative on this important vote.
Tisdale expressed concerns over Anderson’s track record on energy projects in the victinity. “Anderson has a long history of working with SDG&E, Sempra, and other developers like Hamann Companies, who is behind the long-stalled but approved large Rugged Solar project at Rough Acres Ranch between Ribbonwood Road and McCain
Valley Road,” Tisdale stated in an e-mail to ECM.
In 2010, Anderson was fined by the Fair Political Practices Commission for accepting donations over the legal limit from five donors, including SDG&E and members of the Hamann Construction family. In 2015, Anderson lobbied Supervisors to support the Soitec solar project on Rough Acres Ranch, owned by the Hamann Companies, a major contributor to his legislative and supervisorial campaigns.
View attachment on the Renewable Energy Overlay Options for the Supervisors’ January 27 hearing: https://bosagenda.sandiegocounty.gov/cob/cosd/cob/doc?id=0901127e80c4df3d.
The meeting will be virtual due to COVID-19; residents will have opportunities for comment during the public comments segment of the online meetings.
Comments
My back yard
The Campo Indians want to put 250 foot wind turbines in our back yard. Fortunatly it just got put on hold. This lie about solar and wind being enviornmental frendly has to stop. It's an enviornmental disaster to mine the materials and use the energy to make them and there is virtually no re-cycling the stuff at end of life. Aside from the problem they will never generate enough energy to pay for them.