EDITORIAL: POWERLINK SHOCKER: FEINSTEIN TELLS FOREST SERVICE CHIEF SHE SUPPORTS POWERLINK, SEES “NO OPPOSITION” OTHER THAN “NIMBY GROUPS FULLY CONSIDERED & DISMISSED”

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ECM URGES FEINSTEIN:  COME TO A PUBLIC MEETING IN EAST COUNTY ON POWERLINK

 

By Miriam Raftery, Editor

March 26, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has pressured the head of the U.S. Forest Service in an appropriations hearing last week to fast-track approval of SDG&E’s request to run Sunrise Powerlink through the Cleveland National Forest, the Union-Tribune reports today. Claiming to be unaware of major opposition, she later said she may reconsider her support if she hears of major concerns from the community.

 

Feinstein told Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, “I don’t think there’s any flora or fauna or real environmental problems that I know of,”  the Union-Tribune reports. She said the line was needed to supply jobs and renewable power, even though the PUC has not required that any of Powerlink’s electricity be from renewable sources. Feinstein further said that she knew of “no opposition” to the plan, but after a staffer slipped her a note, called the opposition “NIMBY groups fully considered and dismissed by regulatory agencies.

After opponents including Supervisor Dianne Jacob reacted with shock, Feinstein offered to meet with Jacob and others and indicated she may reconsider her stance. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/26/feinstein-pushes-for-sunrise-approval/

 

Apparently Senator Feinstein has not been reading East County Magazine. If she were, she would know that the East County Community Action Coalition now represents over 79,000 people opposed to Sunrise Powerlink.

 

She would also know that a poll of East County Magazine readers found that 84% oppose the Powerlink. She would be aware that Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego) has called Powerlink “Deathlink” because of the high fire danger it poses. She would know that Republican Supervisor Dianne Jacob has called Powerlink impacts the worst of any project ever in her district. Many other public officials, citizens and business owners are strongly opposed as well.

 

She would also have learned that public meetings on Powerlink routinely turned out hundreds of people in communities such as Alpine and Lakeside against the Southern Route, Ramona and Borrego against the northern route—and nearly all of those people don’t want Powerlink built at all. It’s not a “NIMBY” issue. People from the Northern route and San Diego neighborhoods have banded together to help those along the Southern route because they do not believe this line should be built at all.

 

If the Senator had done her homework, she would also have discovered that the project poses substantial environmental and public safety concerns. The Environmental Impact Report found Powerlink poses a “severe and unmitigatable fire hazard” in the same area where the Cedar, Witch and Harris fires all began –at the time, the worst wildfires in California history. Several lawsuits have been filed over the environmental impacts and fire dangers posed by Powerlink.  Wildfires have devastating impacts on flora, fauna and the environment—as well as people’s lives.  Tis is a bipartisan issue –in East County, many officials of all political persuasions view the line as a massive, unwanted and dangerous intrusion.

Does the Senator know that SDG&E has threatened to pull the plug on power during high fire risk days, putting backcountry residents even more at risk? Or that SDG&E has admitted its lines have already caused 166 fires in five years? (Senator Feinstein IS well aware of the fire damage in San Diego County, having chaired a Senate committee here on wildfire issues several years ago.)  Or that the utility failed to propertly notify Lakeside planners that the route had been changed to include the town?  Or that SDG&E paid a hefty fine for lying to state regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission about key aspects of this project?  

Is it “NIMBYism” for people who lost their homes in the Cedar Fire to oppose a line in Lakeside’s El Monte Valley, where there is only one road in and out, and the former fire chief said firefighting planes would be unable to scoop up water from the reservoir there if this line is built? Or for parents in Alpine to be fearful of the health hazards of electromagnetic frequencies from a high voltage line directly in front of their children’s elementary school? I would call that self protection and survival instinct-- and it is an insult to voters for our Senator to dismiss such concerns as trivial or nonexistent.

 

What about the beauty of our backcountry, which has already lost vast tracts of forests to fire, including 99% of the pine trees in Rancho Cuyamaca State Park? El Monte Valley is a designated scenic view corridor likened to Yosemite Valley, as one fire victim (about to lose his property through eminent domain) poignantly documented in a video.  Halting the project on federal lands could also protect areas such as El Capitan mountain in El Monte Valley.

 

Cleveland National Forest is itself an important scenic and environmental resource for people throughout Southern California. Doesn’t a project that despoils those views and poses a high fire danger deserve serious scrutiny by federal regulators?

While arguments can certainly be made in support of Powerlink, there are many who are convinced that there are better, safer ways for our region to generate power to meet future needs. Alternatives such as rooftop solar or wind power, along with installing conservation and weatherization measures, can also create jobs--and all of those would be green. SDG&E, when asked by a CPUC commissioner to guarantee that a modest percentage of power from Powerlink would be from renewables, refused and indicated it would cancel the project if forced to make such a guarantee.

 

Senator Feinstein, chairing a hearing on fire issues in San Diego several years ago, criticized city and county officials for not spending enough on fire protection.  In today's era of budget cuts, we are seeing brownouts, station closures, and cutbacks on brush-clearing programs in some areas of East County.

 

Fourteen people died in Lakeside during the Cedar Fire. Lakeside has cut its brush-cutting program back dramatically.  If Powerlink is built, a fire that starts there in the future can't be fought until Powerlink is shut down--and aerial firefighting planes and helicopters may not be able to douse the flames.  The line itself increases the potential for a fire starting from lines sparking, as well as restricting firefighters.

 

How can a Senator who has shown such concern for fire safety of our region in the past ignore the very serious fire dangers posed by Sunrise Powerlink and the great fear that many residents have of being burned again?

 

To trivialize the concerns of residents opposed to this project in trying to win support from federal regulators, the Senator has essentially delivered a slap in the face to the more than 79,000 people in our region who believe Powerlink would be devastating and dangerous for our region.

 

As a nonprofit, nonpartisan publication, East County Magazine does not endorse candidates. We believe in giving our readers all sides of issues and presenting in-depth, unbiased information on all candidates on the ballot, allowing our readers to make up their own minds.

 

As editor of East County Magazine, which receives over 1 million hits a month to our website,  I invite Senator Feinstein to come to San Diego’s East County for a public forum on this important issue.

 

We will gladly help arrange a facility and invite the representatives from SDG&E as well as fire officials, local planners, environmentalists, energy experts, fire victims, parents, and citizens. If she truly has an open mind on this issue, she should welcome the opportunity to allow those concerned or supportive of Powerlink to meet with her as soon as possible and participate in a democratic process, assuring voters here that Senator Feinstein is fully aware of all concerns regarding Sunrise Powerlink.

 


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Comments

Feinstein

""Feinstein told Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, “I don’t think there’s any flora or fauna or real environmental problems that I know of,”"

Expecting Feinstein to be aware of anything let alone anything south of LA is a streach in the first place. I know California is a "progressive" ( under the new defination of progressive, AKA Socialist.) state but you would think there would be a time when even these voters will have had enough of Feinstein, and Boxer, and Pelosi?