SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- An environmental group filed a lawsuit Thursday in an attempt to block a high-voltage transmission line that a unit of Sempra Energy (SRE) plans to build in the Southern California desert.
The complaint, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity with the California Supreme Court, accuses state regulators of violating environmental protection laws that require large projects, like San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s Sunrise Powerlink, to be designed in a way that produces the fewest greenhouse gas emissions and avoids undeveloped, wildlife habitats.
The California Public Utilities Commission in December approved a plan by San Diego Gas & Electric to build, at customers' expense, a $2 billion transmission line in the Sonoran Desert, which the company said it would use primarily to transport renewable power.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger strongly endorsed the 123-mile transmission line as an important expansion of the state's electrical grid to allow new sources of renewable power, like wind, solar and geothermal generation, to be developed and shipped to populated areas like San Diego. The state's grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, also supported the project and said it should be built as soon as possible.
The U.S. Department of Energy has criticized Southern California's grid, saying it is among the nation's most congested. The agency designated the region as a "transmission corridor" where it said new transmision facilities are needed to relieve congestion and boost reliability.
SDG&E will likely have to get one-third of the power it sells from renewable sources by 2020, under pending legislation supported by the governor. The utility said it will use the Sunrise power line to acquire renewable power it needs to comply with a current requirement that it use renewables for 20% of its retail power by 2010.
The Sunrise line is to be built along a rural southern route that avoids Anzo Borrego State Park and an Indian reservation. The project was challenged by environmental and homeowner groups who argued that it would endanger desert wildlife like bighorn sheep.
Some customer groups opposed the project because they said it would require an unnecessarily large expenditure of utility customers' money and that there were less expensive ways to increase electric reliability and renewable power use.
-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com
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Publié le 22 janvier 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones