By Miriam Raftery

July 15, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)—San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) is the first utility company in the nation to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test the use of small, unmanned drone aircraft for monitoring electric and gas lines. 

The company announced that this will improve safety and response times, but the announcement is also drawing criticism for the lack of public input and potential environmental issues.

Meetings set in Julian on November 11 and December 4

By Miriam Raftery

November 1, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Should unmanned drone aircraft testing be allowed over San Diego and East County?   

San Diego’s entire Congressional delegation thinks so. All five members have signed a letter supporting efforts by Inyokern to have the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declare our region an unmanned aircraft systems test site,The Drone News reported on October 26. San Diego Supervisors have also voiced support for the proposal, directing staff to write a letter in support. Supervisor Dianne Jacob has said she supports the concept to provide jobs and fire monitoring.

But now a citizens action group called Back Country Voices has formed  to oppose drone testing here.  The  The group plans two meetings, one at the Julian Library on November 11 at 6 p.m. and the second on December 4 at 6 p.m. Objections include safety and privacy concerns over drone surveillance,  impacts of drones on the environment, bird migrations, and the deaths of innocent civilians including thousands of children worldwide inadvertently killed by drones.