A federal judge declined to issue an immediate injunction to halt construction of San Diego Gas & Electric’s Sunrise Powerlink project, saying he will instead take more time to review the matter. “It allows SDG&E to continue building the Sunrise Powerlink without resolution of our case, which in my opinion is a travesty,” said Donna Tisdale, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit attempting to have an injunction put in place. During a June 21 hearing inside a packed U.S. district courtroom in San Diego, attorneys for three local organizations tried to convince Judge Roger Benitez that an injunction should be issued on grounds that the line would present a fire danger and damage lands in the local backcountry, among other reasons. The attorneys were given about 20 minutes, along with ones representing SDG&E and the Bureau of Land Management, to present their cases for or against the injunction. The three organizations pushing the injunction are the Protect Our Communities Foundation, Back Country Against Dumps, and the East County Community Action Coalition. The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Sacramento in February 2010 challenging the grant of a permit by the BLM allowing the power line to in part be built on several miles of public land. During the hearing, Benitez gave no indication of when he might issue a decision. He did caution that he was starting a bench trial immediately after the hearing, implying that it could be weeks or months before a ruling is issued. “I didn’t get a good feeling from the judge,” Tisdale said. “But we’re prepared to take it up to the Ninth Circuit [Court of Appeals] if he rules against us.” SDG&E spokesperson Jennifer Ramp said the utility has faced other legal challenges to the project, but was confident this one, like the others, would be unsuccessful. Construction of the 117-mile long, $1.88 billion “electric superhighway” began last fall and is expected to be complete by late 2012. SDG&E says that the project would improve reliability and strengthen the state’s transmission grid, as well as create up to 500 construction jobs. In the months since building began in earnest, there have been minor construction-related incidents. The most recent was the accidental mid-flight unhooking of a section of a transmission tower being erected by a helicopter on June 10. The piece was eventually lowered to the ground via the one remaining hook, but it subsequently tipped over. Three days earlier, the same helicopter accidentally dropped another portion of a tower on the desert floor. No one was hurt in either case.