In a California Supreme Court filing, regulators’ approval of the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line was alleged to violate the state’s environmental protection law. In a January 21 filing, opponents of the 123-mile 500 kV line asked the high court to throw out the California Public Utilities Commission’s December 18 decision for allegedly violating the California Environmental Quality Act. “As approved by the Commission, the Sunrise Transmission Project would sacrifice sensitive public lands and vital habitat without any guarantee the line will be used to deliver clean energy,” said Ileene Anderson of the Center for Biological Diversity. In its brief, the Center for Biological Diversity asked the court justices to void the decision approving San Diego Gas & Electric’s $2 billion project on grounds it gave short shrift to mitigation measures the environmental group declares are required to offset the project’s greenhouse gas emission impacts. The group also wants the court to assess the sufficiency of the evaluation of environmentally preferably alternatives, including tapping into local solar and wind and other alternative power projects. The filing also declares project approval should be annulled because it does not require the high voltage lines to hook into renewable energy projects. Regulators approved on a 4-1 vote SDG&E’s transmission project as proposed by CPUC president Mike Peevey. The administrative law judge in the case recommended against the line (Circuit, Dec. 19, 2008). The transmission project was also approved by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management January 20. In its Record of Decision, the agency gave the green light to SDG&E stringing 70 miles of high voltage lines across public lands. The federal agency signed a right-of-way grant and issued a temporary use permit to the utility with “mitigating terms and conditions,” including those in the biological opinion and the Endangered Species Act. “Once SDG&E agrees to the conditions, the BLM will then issue the grant and permit for the power line,” states the BLM release. The approved route crosses 49 miles of BLM land, 19 miles of U.S. Forest Service land, 2 miles of Department of Defense land, and 0.4 miles of state land.