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San Diego Gas & Electric was ordered to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its Sunrise Powerlink transmission line project. On March 3, California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge Steve Weissman issued a ruling that also requires the utility to provide details about its renewable solicitations and evaluate the impact of the Imperial Irrigation District’s withdrawal from the project. The high voltage transmission line is proposed to roughly run from the state’s southeastern desert into urban San Diego. The utility maintains it is the prime method to bring in renewable, mostly solar, power to the city. Environmentalists are concerned about its effect on public desert lands. Consumer groups maintain that it is unnecessary and the utility could provide other supplies without the new transmission line. The Imperial Irrigation District dropped out of the project in November 2007. It had supported it as a partial developer, but backed off over its claim that the project wouldn’t suit the district’s needs, as well as concern over geographical corridors and federal oversight. With direct testimony set to resume next week in the hearings over the proposed transmission project, the judge ordered the utility to verify the accuracy of some of its previous testimony. Weissman pointed out that the greenhouse gas reductions estimates from the construction and use of the proposed high voltage line vastly different from levels stated in the Draft Environmental Impact Report. The judge specifically ordered SDG&E to provide the California Independent System Operator data and other supporting information that it relied on in forming its estimate. SDG&E is mandated to provide a witness to testify on the estimate. Second, the utility is to supply testimony on the implications of the Imperial Irrigation District’s withdrawal from the Memorandum of Agreement, including the effect on the project’s description and cost and impact on renewable energy supplies that would flow to the grid operator. Lastly, SDG&E was ordered to detail the responses it received from its renewable requests for offers as well as on the level of alternative power sources procured. Elsewhere, the San Diego Association of Governments’ energy working group, on a split vote on February 28, passed a motion declaring that the Powerlink project contradicts SANDAG’s regional energy strategy. SANDAG, which is made up of 18 city and county governments, obtains and allocates resources, makes strategic plans, and builds public transportation within San Diego County The Sunrise Powerlink line is a proposed 150-mile, 500 kV line. SDG&E has indicated that it will comply with the judge’s order during direct testimony in Phase II of the Powerlink hearing set for March 12. Rebuttal testimony is scheduled for March 28. Evidentiary hearings in the second phase of the case are currently scheduled for April 7-9 at the California Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego. Currently, the CPUC is expected to issue a final decision on the Sunrise Powerlink in July or August. If approved, the transmission line could become operational in 2011, according to SDG&E.

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